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THE TRUTH OF THE APOSTOLIC 
GOSPEL 



The Truth 



of THE 



APOSTOLIC GOSPEL 



BY 



4 Principal 



R. A. Falconer, D. Litt 



New York: 

The International Committee of Young Men's 

Christian Associations 

1904 






UB3RHV nf 00W6RESS 
Two Cooles Received 

AUG 18 1904 
& Conyrfsrht Entry 

No. 



CLASS ^XXo. 



1H 

COPY B 



Copyrighted, 1904, 

BY 

The International Committee 

of 

Young Men's Christian associations 



PREFATORY NOTE 



The aim of this course is much less pretentious than to furnish a 
complete system of Christian apologetic. In accordance with the re- 
quest which was made of him, the author has simply drawn up a series 
of studies, as far as might be from the New Testament itself, for the 
purpose of setting forth the essence and strength of the Gospel which 
is its heart. While the difficulties of the college student have been kept 
steadily in view, it is hoped that others may find equally well that these 
pages help them to understand some of the convincing reasons, which we 
have to-day more than ever, for believing in the truth of the Apostolic 
Gospel. The New Testament in Modern Speech, by Richard Francis 
Weymouth, may be recommended as a useful aid for these studies. 



CONTENTS 



Page 

Introductory. Study i. Attitude and Sources i 

Part I. The Phenoinena of the New Testament. 

Study 2. The Rise of a New Brotherhood . ... n 

Study 3. A Fellowship of Love to Christ .... 18 

Study 4. The Hope of the Brotherhood 25 

Study 5. The Sense of Power in the Brotherhood . 32 

Study 6. The Christian Character a New Creation . 39 

Study 7. The Ethical Ideal of the New Character . 46 

Study 8. The Christian Ideal of Domestic Life . . 53 

Study 9. The Christian in Public Life 60 

Study 10. Great Personalities 67 

Study 11. The Christian Literature — The New Testa- 
ment 74 

Part II. The New Testament Explanation of the Foregoing 
Phenomena — The Apostolic Gospel. 

Study 12. The Gospel 83 

Study 13. The Jesus of the Gospels 90 

Study 14. The Jesus of the Gospels — His Claim . . 97 

Study 15. The Jesus Christ of the Apostles .... 104 

Study 16. The Manifold Gospel in 

Part III. The Credibility of the Apostolic Gospel. 

Study 17. The Trustworthiness of the Gospels . . 121 
Study 18. The Trustworthiness of the Gospels (con- 
tinued) 128 

Study 19. The Christ of the Church 135 

Study 20. The Witness of the Works of the Living 

Christ 142 



INTRODUCTORY 



STUDY 1. ATTITUDE AND SOURCES 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study i: Attitude and Sources 



First Day: All Truth is One and Spiritual 

i. The genuine student is eager in the search for truth. He believes 
that everything must approve itself to his reason. Science has made 
such gigantic strides, and has by its magnificent generalizations so 
brought home to the modern mind the unity of nature, that its laws are 
regarded as the abiding objective truth, whatever be our likes or dis- 
likes, our superstitions or prejudices. Other things may change, the 
laws of nature are permanent. For if our hypotheses have to be aban- 
doned from time to time, it is not the underlying law which is supposed 
to be capricious, and we do not desist from the search until some more 
permanent hypothesis is discovered. So to-day the old atomic theory 
is yielding to a grander generalization as to the structure of matter. 

2. Equally zealous is the philosophic student to discover the laws of 
mind. Persuaded that human life can be unified and explained in terms 
of reason, he traces through the systems that change from age to age, 
a pervading and ever clearer principle. Deeper and truer inductions in 
the realm of pure thought, psychology, or the process of history dis- 
place the philosophic structures of the past, which are proving too strait 
for the amplitude of present knowledge and experience. 

3. Truth is a term that is too often narrowed in its range. Truths 
of science are only a part of the whole of truth ; truths of philosophy are 
only a part of the whole of truth. Both science and philosophy must 
include in their survey the truths of the other realms of nature before 
giving forth their final results as the truth. For no part of truth can 
conflict with any other part of truth. So no hypothesis of science or 
philosophy is truth if it clashes with the largest meaning of man's life. 

4. According to the Bible man is of such supreme value, his essen- 
tial worth is so great, and his destiny so glorious, that the world of 
nature is merely the stage on which man's character is disciplined (Ps. 
8:3-9; Matt. 6:32, 33; 16:26; 24:35; John 1:1-4, 10; 17:5, 24; Eph. 
1 :_4; Heb. 4:3). Nature is regarded as sympathetic to the crises in the 
Kingdom of God (Ps. 104:1-10; Matt. 24:29-31; Rom. 8:19-22). 
Therefore since the purposes of God for the kingdom of humanity are 
supreme, no scientific or philosophic theory can be correct which con- 
flicts with the principles of God's moral rule. Truth must in its last 
issue have a spiritual interpretation. 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study i: Attitude and Sources 



Second Day : Faith a Universal Principle of Life 



i. Faith is a word which is greatly misunderstood. Many suppose 
it to be confined to the domain of religion. But this is not so. All 
scientific deductions presuppose faith. We believe that we are justified 
in formulating a law on the basis of a large number of similar events 
having taken place. This, however, rests on the assumption that nature 
is uniform — to our minds a perfectly reasonable postulate. Similarly 
we assume that our faculties may be trusted. Indeed we conduct our 
life on the principle that Reason is the supreme Director of existence. 
This is faith. 

2. Therefore the highest form of faith must be reliance on the truest 
principles of Reason. Now we are conscious that our moral and spirit- 
ual nature is our noblest possession. We find then the supreme Reason 
in that which harmonizes our experience and coordinates our life in 
their widest range. Just as we trust our faculty of pure thought in 
order to arrive at the truths of natural science or of the mind, so we 
trust our moral and spiritual faculty to manifest to us the truth of the 
spiritual realm. We assume that religious faith ushers us into the 
highest truth of all, the knowledge of a personal God whose fellowship 
satisfies the most persistent longings of our hearts. It would be irra- 
tional not to make this assumption (Heb. n : 1-3, 27). 

3. Religion is the crown of life. It is that act of our manhood in 
the exercise of its fullest powers of thought, will and affection, whereby 
we enter, transient and feeble creatures though we seem to be, into con- 
scious fellowship with the eternal God. From Him alone life has any 
meaning. Our reason compels us to believe that His will directs all 
things, and therefore that we should obey Him. "In His will is our 
peace." The Bible always assumes that there is a righteous God, that 
man is a responsible being, and knows the difference between right and 
wrong. Man shares the knowledge of God in His conscience. He can 
know the truth and therefore is in duty bound to exercise faith (Acts 
14:15-17; 17:22-31; Rom. 1:18-25). 

A fine treatment of this subject is to be found in "Reason and Revela- 
tion," by J. R. Illingworth. 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study i: Attitude and Sources 



Third Day: The Truth of the Gospel is Self- Evident 



i. Just as there are certain truths of natural science and philosophy 
which by elucidation become obvious, so there are truths of religion 
which intrinsically constrain those who are healthy-minded to believe 
them. Throughout the New Testament it is assumed that the Gospel is 
such a body of truth (Mark 1:15). The gospel is proclaimed as the 
truth which brings life eternal (John 14:6; Rom. 6:17, 22). Jesus 
expresses surprise that men do not accept His gospel (Mark 6:6), but 
neither He nor His disciples use any compulsory methods for spreading 
it. The truth will win its way in the hearts of men (John 18:37). No 
attempt is made to preach any gospel which does not appeal to men's 
faculty for discerning truth. Facts are stated in a most positive manner, 
and mysteries are revealed in full confidence that they will meet with 
a response in the hearts of men. 

2. How came it then that many did not believe Christ? If the gospel 
is the truth of life, why does not everyone accept it? The New Testa- 
ment accounts for this unbelief by the fact of sin. An irrational ele- 
ment has invaded the moral nature. Sin deceives the heart (Luke 8:14, 
15; John 3:16-21; Eph. 4:17, 18; Heb. 3:13; James 1:15). If men 
refused to follow Jesus it was because the truth of His life, the strength 
and beauty of His character, and the glory of His message could not 
counteract their sinful love of this world. This is the only reason the 
gospels offer for such incomprehensible conduct. 

3. A truly moral man must be religious, for there is none good but 
one, that is God (Mark 10:18), and the religious nature craves for fel- 
lowship with Him. We need not deny that we can learn of God through 
the truths of nature and philosophy, for God is immanent in the world, 
but our souls thirst for the living God. The classic expression of this 
yearning is found in the Old Testament Psalms (16; 42:1, 2; 116:4-7). 
Our human reason is not satisfied till it finds rest in the love of God 
our Holy Father. Now the heart of the gospel is that it brings to men 
the assurance of eternal life in fellowship with Him who is the Truth 
(Matt. 11:27-30; John 14:23; 16:33; Rom. 8:31-39). 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study i: Attitude and Sources 



Fourth Day: What Manner of Man is the Searcher 
After Truth? 



i. What are the qualifications of him who would investigate the 
truth of the gospel? First, he must accept the testimony of the moral 
nature of man as leading him up to God. The gospel itself is one of the 
strongest evidences of the being of God, and should strengthen the 
wavering belief in God of any one whose moral nature is not atrophied. 
Truth must be loved ; Sin must be abhorred ; and longing to escape from 
the sin which estranges us from God, the truthseeker must cry, Create 
in me a clean heart (Ps. 51). 

2. The world must be interpreted in the light of a personal God. 
The Kingdom of God is the crown of creation, therefore all life leads 
up to and prepares for that eternal purpose. This is a demand of our 
religious nature. It is an assumption in the Bible. Therefore the laws 
of physical science cannot be erected into an absolute standard of truth, 
irrespective of the higher necessities of man's religious nature. The 
moral facts of life rnust^ be considered before the laws of nature are 
formulated, and man's spiritual destiny is as imperious in its conditions 
as is his physical environment. Hence the worthy student of the gos- 
pel must divest himself of rigid theories, as for example that miracles 
cannot happen. This may be prejudice from insufficient induction cov- 
ering only one department of life. Whatever best furthers the purpose 
of God's love for man is reasonable. Therefore we must approach the 
supernatural in the New Testament with an open mind. 

3. The genuine searcher after truth must be a man of prayer. 
Prayer is simply intercourse with God. It is an opening of the heart to 
receive His Spirit, who purifies by His presence the remotest corners 
of our thought. We cultivate the best that is in us by fellowship with 
our friends, enlarging our hearts, quickening our minds, refining our 
natures thereby. Friendship grows with practice. So the culture of the 
soul demands fellowship with our best Friend. By prayer we rejoice 
in the love of God. Prayer is the soul's avenue into the Truth (Luke 
6 : 12 ; 9 : 29 ; 1 Thess. 5:17; Eph. 6 : 10-18) . 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study i: Attitude and Sources 



Fifth Day: The Conservative Position with Respect 
to the New Testament 



1. At the opening of our studies we are confronted with this ques- 
tion; Is there any certain ground in the New Testament on which we 
can take our stand in order to examine the nature and validity of the 
Apostolic Gospel? Has not recent criticism wrought such havoc with 
the books of the New Testament, that to start from them as they are 
would be to begin with an assumption which would be challenged at 
once? There is, it is true, an extreme school whose scepticism will 
allow them to accept very little in the New Testament as authentic, 
but this school is so small and unimportant that it would serve no pur- 
pose for us to refer to their conclusions. 

2. It is unnecessary in these studies to make an independent ex- 
amination of the books of the New Testament in order to determine the 
author of each, the date, and the readers ; for our results would be re- 
jected in part at least by men who, one would fain hope, might agree 
with our main conclusions. The writer of these studies is of opinion 
that the conservative positions with respect to the New Testament are 
justifying themselves more and more under the scrutiny of the most 
careful scholarship. Widespread early tradition is in general found 
to yield the most satisfactory explanation of the origin of these writings. 

3. Conservative critics believe that the books of the New Testament 
are well within the first century, and present in their present form a 
thoroughly credible account of the life and gospel of Jesus Christ, and 
of the work of His Spirit among His disciples in the primitive Church. 
They hold that three apostolic sources are represented in our four gos- 
pels, and that of these the Gospel of John at least was written by an 
eye-witness. Acts is regarded as the work of a companion of Paul, and 
therefore a reliable history, and the epistles are assigned to the authors 
whose names they carry. Of all the epistles 2 Peter is the only one 
which is seriously questioned by scholars who represent the conserva- 
tive standpoint, and on this opinion is greatly divided. Perhaps the 
recent Bible Dictionary, edited by Dr. James Hastings, may be taken as 
a standard for the conservative position with regard to the New Testa- 
ment. This appears to be the attitude of the majority of the foremost 
English-speaking scholars. 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study i : Attitude and Sources 



Sixth Day: The Conservative Scholar is not Neces- 
sarily Less Scientific than the Radical 

i. But in many minds there is an uneasy suspicion that the conserva- 
tive point of view is unscientific. The radical school is particularly 
urgent in preferring this charge. There is, however, no reason why 
the scientific spirit should be the peculiar possession either of radical 
or conservative. What is the scientific spirit? It is one which weighs 
facts and evidence in the most impartial manner, and then by the use 
of good judgment assigns the relative values to such facts and evi- 
dence. Von Ranke said that he would base his history only on what 
actually happened. But this is an ideal towards which only the greatest 
of historians even approximate, for the most delicate discernment is 
required to sift the original facts from the interpretations which have 
been put upon the facts from the very moment of their happening, and 
to estimate the truth or error of a tradition. 

2. Two scholars approach the New Testament as two judges who 
are to try a case in law. The same evidence is presented to both, but it 
appeals very differently to each, and their judgments differ. These two 
scholars bring with them different convictions or prepossessions. One 
is professedly a believer in Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour from 
sin, to whom by a miracle of grace he owes all that is of value in his 
own life. To this Christ he prays every day, and he believes that His 
Spirit is moulding his character. The New Testament is the book on 
which he feeds his spiritual life, for in it he finds Jesus Christ, and in 
the record of His life he discovers that which satisfies the deepest needs 
of his soul. The other scholar has little satisfaction in the Christian 
view of God and the world, or if he accepts the Christian view of God 
as a loving Father, he is repelled by the apostolic conception of the 
person of Christ, believes that Jesus could not have been more than a 
man, and is so imbued with the naturalistic spirit that he practically 
could not be persuaded by almost any available evidence that miracles 
can have happened. 

3. Now, neither of these is necessarily more scientific than the other. 
The impartiality and judgment of each is to be determined by the way 
in which the evidence is dealt with. The conservative scholar shows 
his scientific spirit and his unbiassed search for truth by his willing- 
ness to investigate the grounds of his belief, and his ability to discern 
what in them is essential or unessential. The one axiom is that his re- 
ligious life is supreme, and his intellect therefore will not permit him 
to surrender any facts or beliefs that are of its essence. But this is 
truly scientific, for his religious life itself has to be accounted for. 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 

Study i: Attitude and Sources 



Seventh Day: The Method and Position Adopted in 
These Studies 

i. Our aim is to consider the phenomena of the New Testament as 
a whole. Therefore we shall not assume the correctness of the con- 
servative view. But all that is necessary is to take for granted certain 
positions, which will hardly be questioned by any except those extreme 
radicals, whom we may safely leave out of consideration at present, 
though they will not be accepted by conservative scholars as an ade- 
quate account of the New Testament. 

2. We shall study the Christian life of the period covered by the 
main body of the New Testament as a definite historical manifestation, 
the salient features of which will be brought under review in order to 
discover if possible their essential meaning and motive power ; and our 
interest will be concentrated on the social, moral, and religious condi- 
tions of the epoch as a whole, rather than on the detailed progress 
within the period. 

3. For this purpose we shall assume, as with good reason we may, 
that: (1) These Pauline epistles are undoubtedly genuine — 1 Thessa- 
lonians, Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, and Romans. They were written 
not earlier than 45 A. D., nor later than 59 A. D. 

(2) Philippians, Colossians, Philemon almost certainly, and Ephe- 
sians very probably, were written by Paul not later than 64 A. D., and 
may be employed for depicting the life of the Church in the third 
quarter of the first century. Indeed we may in ordinary cases use 
them as sources for Pauline thought. 

(3) At the basis of our synoptic gospels there lie two apostolic 
sources — a Petrine, embodied chiefly in Mark and reproduced in our 
Matthew and Luke — and a collection of discourses of Jesus attributed 
to the Apostle Matthew. These were written down before 70 A. D. 
Our present synoptic gospels, containing these sources as their chief 
material, were composed independently of one another not later than 
90 A. D. 

(4) The Book of Acts, the Apocalypse, the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
the pastoral epistles, the Gospel of John, and the Catholic epistles (with 
the exception of 2 Peter) were in existence not much later than 125 
A. D. Most of them were probably written before the end of the first 
century, and First Peter, like Ephesians, may confidently be used for 
apostolic doctrine. (See B. W. Bacon's Introduction to the New Testa- 
ment.) 

4. These books bear witness to the existence between 45 and 125 
A. D. of a new type of character, ideals and belief. It is hoped that 
our studies of these phenomena may serve to show that the apostolic 
gospel is true, because it is a reasonable and sufficient explanation of 
the origin and progress of this Christian life and belief. 



PART I. 



THE PHENOMENA OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 2: The Rise of a New Brotherhood 



First Day : Rapid Growth in Jewish and Gentile 
Worlds 

1. One of the most striking phenomena in history is the appearance 
of the community of believers in Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah of 
Israel and Son of God (Acts 2:36), and their rapid extension through 
the Roman world during the first century of our era. Though the 
leaven at work in Jerusalem by 30 A. D. was a very small particle, its 
fermenting activity was marvelous. 

2. Owing to the vagueness of early chronology an estimate of the 
rapidity of growth is necessarily uncertain, but the martyrdom of 
Stephen and the early life of Paul prove that the new religion soon 
produced a profound impression on the Jewish world. Would a man of 
the standing of Saul of Tarsus have spent his energy in making havoc 
of a sect which might be despised? (Gal. 1:13, 14.) Proof of the 
anxiety on the part of the hierarchy lest the Nazarenes might pervert 
the populace is afforded by their summary method with Stephen (Acts 
6:12; 7:54— 8:3). 

3. Stephen's death brought the new religion to a parting of the 
ways. Henceforth the Nazarenes cannot remain a mere sect of Judaism. 
Persecution scatters far and wide the seed of the Word, which springs 
up in Samaria, the coast region, and Damascus (Acts 8:4; 9:3iff. ; 
10: iff). The new churches, however, are still of the same type as the 
mother church at Jerusalem, Hebraic rather than Hellenistic in spirit, 
the converts being, it is probable, almost entirely born Jews, though 
there were also some proselytes. 

4. How should we expect the Church to grow? By the initiative 
of the apostles? It was not so. (See Acts 11:19-21.) The gospel was 
carried to various parts of the world as God through the circumstances 
of life might lead. Thus it is probable that brethren of no eminence 
among the original circle founded the churches of Rome and Alexandria, 
as they certainly did that of Antioch, which became the mother church 
of Gentile Christianity (Acts 11:20). 

5. The immense success of Gentile missions forced anew problem 
upon the Church, which is the leading motive of the earlier epistles of 
Paul (see esp. Gal. 2:1-12; cf. Acts 15:1, 22). Were the Gentiles to 
be received by the Jewish Christians without circumcision as brethren 
on equal terms? The rapid inflow of Gentile converts made the dif- 
ficulty acute, for they threatened to deprive Jerusalem and the Jewish 
Christians of their preeminence. Its solution is a fine tribute to the 
reality of their brotherly spirit. 



11 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 
Study 2: The Rise of a New Brotherhood 



Second Day : The Church in the Roman Empire During 
the First Century 

i. Paul the missionary statesman becomes through his conversion 
the apostle to the Gentiles (Gal. 1:16; cf. Acts 9:15; 22:21), and sets 
his face towards the west (Rom. 1:13). His purpose led him along 
the great Roman highways of commerce to cities where Greek was 
spoken. Seized as he was with the idea of the imperial destiny of 
Christianity, Paul traversed those provinces in which his Roman citi- 
zenship would be of most service, attacking the civilized centers of the 
world's life, not the remote pagan tribes; and with much success, for 
shortly the brethren are grouped not only in city churches, such as 
Ephesus, and Corinth, but under the Roman provinces, "The churches 
of Achaia, Macedonia" (2 Cor. 8:1; 9:2; see also 1 Peter 1:1). 

2. The outbreak of violent persecution is another evidence that the 
Church had grown rapidly. It came first from the Jews, and for years 
Paul seems to have regarded the Roman Empire as his protector (Rom. 
x 3 : 1-7)- Is not this impression of the favor of Rome conveyed by Acts? 
(See Acts 25:10-12.) But the favor was short-lived, for according to 
Tacitus (Ann. xv., 44). an immense multitude were put to death by 
Nero (A. D. 64) ; and a similar policy seems to have extended to the 
provinces (assuming that 1 Peter was written about this time), and 
indeed throughout the empire (1 Peter 4:12; 5:9). 

3. When the Apocalypse of John was written (not later than the 
ninth decade of first century), we have the terrible picture of Babylon 
the great, the mother of harlots (Rev. 17:5, 6). Rome is drunk with 
the blood of martyrs out of every nation and tribe. Rev. 7:9, 14 shows 
that the rapid extension of the Church had for some time seemed to the 
imperial authorities to threaten the empire. Finally in 112 A. D. Pliny, 
pro-consul of the large region of Bithynia-Pontus, writes to the Em- 
peror Trajan that the rapid spread of Christianity in the preceding 
years through country, villages, and cities, was such that heathen tem- 
ples were deserted, and measures should be taken to repress the sect. 

4. Results. By the end of the first century Christianity has taken 
deep root in Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, Rome, Egypt, and 
also, it would appear, in other parts of Africa. "It is probable that the 
new religion spread with marvelous rapidity from the beginning of 
Paul's preaching in Asia Minor. Unless that were so, it is hard to see 
how the social condition of Asia Minor during the second century 
could have been produced." (Prof. W. M. Ramsay, "The Church in the 
Roman Empire," page 146; see also Prof. Orr's "Some Neglected Fac- 
tors in the Study of the Early Progress of Christianity.") 



12 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 
Study 2: The Rise of a New Brotherhood 



Third Day: The Blending of Discrepant National 
Elements into a New Unity 

1. No less remarkable than the rapidity of the growth of this brother- 
hood was the complexity of its national elements. It was at first re- 
cruited chiefly from Jews who were looking for the salvation of Israel 
(Acts 3: 17-26). And nothing but the work of God in the hearts of the 
Gentiles could persuade them to offer the gospel to the uncircumcised 
(Gal. 2:8; cf. Acts 10:45-47; n-i7» 18). So exclusive was the Jew 
that the Roman government found it necessary to grant him special 
privileges wherever he settled, always recognizing him in Asia, or even 
in Alexandria as belonging to an alien body. He cherished passionately 
the conviction that his nation was a peculiar people, and held himself 
aloof from Gentile defilements, being indeed morally far superior, as 
was admitted by the numerous proselytes who from one end of the 
empire to the other associated with the Jewish worship, because of the 
pure monotheism and the high ethical teaching of the synagogue (Acts 
10:28; 14:1; 17:4). What must it have meant for a Jewish Christian 
to call an uncircumcised Gentile his brother? (Gal. 2:3-5.) Must he 
not have regarded faith in Jesus Christ as of quite extraordinary value 
when he was willing to transfer the sacred title "Israel" to Gentiles, 
without pedigree, promises, and often even noble character? But 
Eph. 2:11-13 shows that the fusion was made. 

2. There were also many Greeks in this brotherhood. The Greek 
was a man for whom the present world meant a very great deal. 
"Greece [at its best in classic days] first took up the task of fitting man 
with all that equips him for civil life and promotes his secular well- 
being; of unfolding and expanding every inborn faculty and energy, 
bodily and mental ; of striving restlessly after the perfection of the 
whole, and finding in this effort after an unattainable ideal that by which 
a man becomes like unto the gods" (Butcher, "Aspects of Greek 
Genius," page 42). But the Greek had grown degenerate, much as he 
still professed "distinction" for his corrupt taste. In the realm of 
morals he had fallen very low. Cities like Antioch on the Orontes were 
brilliant but utterly sensual. Life had no seriousness. The pursuit of 
selfish pleasure, and a spirit of partisanship had turned the history of the 
Greeks into a record of lamentable failure. To the average Greek the 
gospel for a world of sin would be the height of folly (1 Cor. 1 : 21-24). 
But this gospel struck seriousness into many a frivolous Greek; it 
made him count the glory of the world as of little value (1 John 2: 
15-17), and created in him a loyalty to Christ and His Kingdom such 
as no earthly city, nor empire, nor philosophy, nor ideal of beauty had 
ever evoked (Gal. 3:28; read also Acts 17:16-34; 19:23-41). 



13 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 2: The Rise of a New Brotherhood 



Fourth Day: A Citizenship Worthier than that of 

Rome 

1. The Roman citizen. To be a Roman citizen was to be one of the 
lords of the world. We can hear even in Paul the ringing note of the 
dominant empire, which was an immense force binding the world to- 
gether. It was on the whole a beneficent rule under which unity was 
conserved in the midst of diversity, and without restraint upon per- 
sonal freedom. All the rights of the citizen were safeguarded, especially 
that of appeal to the emperor before being scourged or sentenced to 
death (Acts 22:28ff). 

2. But the empire was essentially a deification of power. "Worship 
is the duty of the Roman qua citizen. The administration of religion is 
a part of the civil administration ; the jus sacrum is a part of the jus 
civile/' Thus any and every religion was tolerated which did not con- 
flict with the ideal of the state. But since the Roman religion was a 
matter more of public life than of private conviction, the state was in- 
tolerant of what appeared to be exclusive fanaticism. 

3. This imperial spirit was supposed to be incarnate in the emperor, 
who, as head of the state, was given divine honor. Sacrifices were 
offered to his image as to a god. Here a direct and most distressing 
alternative faced the Christian. He was bound to refuse such idolatry 
of power, but in so doing he ceased to be a loyal citizen and renounced 
allegiance to the genius of the world-wide and, on the whole, beneficent 
empire of Rome. The unseen Kingdom of God and the supreme lord- 
ship of Jesus Christ must have appealed to him with overmastering 
power, before he would allow himself to become an alien to the empire 
of "the victorious West in crown and sword arrayed." The gospel of 
Jesus with its conditions of entrance into the kingdom (Matt. 5:3, 5) 
would arouse the scorn of the Roman world, confident in its "pride of 
life." But writing from Rome to a church in a proud colonial city Paul 
sets before them the glory of being burgesses in an eternal city-state 
(Phil. 3:20; 4:3). 

4. The brethren were drawn from every nation, tribe and kindred. 
In the outer world the Roman despised the Greek, Greek hated Jew, 
Jew scorned both, and all regarded with contempt the crude pagan from 
the uplands of Asia Minor, devoted to the orgies of nature worship and 
fretted by civilization. But out of all these was fashioned an inner 
world, whose laws and ideals were based on mutual service and love to 
a common Lord. (See especially Col. 3:1-11.) 



14 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 2: The Rise of a New Brotherhood 



Fifth Day : Recruited from Every Rank in Society 

1. Moreover, every rank of society contributed its share to the mem- 
bership of the new brotherhood. We may assume that the church of 
Corinth represents the average Pauline community, for it was in a 
most cosmopolitan city with a promiscuous population attracted thither 
by trade. A hint of its character is given in 1 Cor. 1 : 26. Though there 
may not have been many high-born nor influential Christians, it is im- 
probable that the majority were drawn from the very poor or the slave 
class, the largest element belonging, it would appear, to the intelligent 
middle class engaged in the ordinary business concerns of life. Pro- 
fessor Ramsay thinks that the standard of intelligence and education 
would reach a high average. Other epistles pre-suppose similar condi- 
tions. James 2 : 2-8 shows a church with commingled elements of rich 
and poor. 1 Peter 2:18; Eph. 6:5ff. address readers many of whom 
were slaves. 

2. But there are examples afforded in the New Testament of con- 
verts from among the well-to-do and even high-born classes. Colossae 
had Philemon. At Corinth itself not only the city treasurer (Rom. 16: 
2$), but other men of standing were leaders in the church (1 Cor. 16: 
15 ; 1 : 14, 15). For the church at Antioch see Acts 13 : 1 ; and one of the 
few at Athens was a member of the court of Areopagus (Acts 17:34). 
It is not unlikely that through the imprisonment of Paul (Phil. 1:13) 
the gospel reached royal circles, for Mommsen asserts that in the first 
century Christianity had no firmer hold anywhere than in the imperial 
court. 

3. This is also borne out by the witness of the Catacombs. Many 
of the earliest were connected with the noblest families in Rome. The 
Acilii, e. g., whose gardens and villa on the Pincian hill were almost 
royal in their magnificence, were probably Christians, for "a beautiful 
hypogaeum of the second century in the very heart of Priscilla's ceme- 
tery containing the tombstone of Manius Acilius Verus and Acilia 
Priscilla, son and daughter of Manius Acilius Glabrio, consul A. D. 152, 
proves that the 'noblest among the noble' had embraced our faith from 
the first announcement of the gospel in Rome" (Lanciani, "Ruins and 
Excavations of Ancient Rome," page 422I). Possibly Pamponia 
Grsecina, wife of the conqueror of Britain, was a Christian, and it seems 
probable that Flavius Clemens, the consul, cousin of the Emperor 
Domitian, was put to death, and his wife, E)omitilla, Domitian's niece, 
banished because they had espoused the faith. Surely there were few 
truer disciples or more obedient to the demands of the gospel than 

.these (Mark 10:22, 25-31). 



15 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 2: The Rise of a New Brotherhood 



Sixth Day: The Average Quality of the Early 
Church 



1. We judge that the intelligence of churches to which such epistles 
as the Romans and Hebrews were written was of no mean order, so 
that the opinion of Schultze, supported as we have seen by Professor 
Ramsay, is entirely credible: "It was not the base elements which came 
into the Church; but on the contrary the better strata of the Roman 
population, the artificers, the shopkeepers, and small landed proprietors, 
therefore preponderatingly the under and middle portion of the citizen 
class who, in the general moral and religious dissolution of heathenism, 
still proved themselves the soundest classes of the community" (quoted 
by Orr, "Neglected Factors," page 112). 

2. But there were also many who had been profligates. From what 
worse life could they have been rescued than that described in 1 Peter 
4:2-4? Does not 1 Thess. 4:1-8 prove that the gospel had to deal with 
many who had very inferior moral standards? May we not infer from 
Rom. 6 : 18, 21 that some of the brethren in the capital had formerly 
given themselves over to the sensuality of "the sink of the world" ? 

3. The world in which Christianity appeared was chaotic. Frag- 
ments of disrupted nationalities were floating in its eddies; men were 
but chips on the stream. There was no spiritual cohesion of the parts, 
no real pity, no sympathy between class and class. No living, throbbing 
ideal of a unified humanity fascinated the conscience of that world. It 
is true that the Stoics had a doctrine of the brotherhood of man, but it 
remained on the whole a counsel of perfection for the wise man, and 
produced in the individual no glow of contagious enthusiasm. In prac- 
tice the fine theories of the manhood of the slave, and the freedom of 
man as man came to nought. Indeed the Stoic was often a hard 
Pharisee. Notwithstanding the religious warmth of Epictetus and the 
moral earnestness of Marcus Aurelius, and in spite of the ethical tone 
of Stoicism as it passed into practice under the Romans, it remained a 
philosophy. More than cold reason was needed to reach the springs of 
action. Whence came it that the debauchee learned purity, the slave be- 
came 3. man, Jew greeted Gentile, and the high born received the poor 
into his palace as a brother ? Whence had the fellowship of love binding 
all into one its source? Surely from a spring which the heavens bowed 
themselves and came down to feed. (Read 1 John 4:7-16.) 



16 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 2: The Rise of a New Brotherhood 



Seventh Day : The King of Love and His City 



1. "Christianity abhors isolation." Love is its essence, for love is 
greater than faith and hope (1 Cor. 13). But love comes from God 
who is its primal fountain, and only through love can we get to know 
Him. The Father Himself is invisible, and the proof that we possess 
His nature is the indwelling in us of His Spirit, impelling us to love 
our brethren. Love is the antithesis of selfishness (1 John 4:12-14). 
Such love of the brethren was a new phenomenon in the world because 
its motive is found in the redemptive love of God's Son (John 13 : 
34, 35)- 

2. The brotherhood was not merely a new ethical society whose 
members practised love to one another. True it was that they only 
could confess that Jesus is the Son of God who did His commands. But 
these commands were given by one who had died to save them from 
their sins (1 Peter 1:13-19). In the sight of His cross the worldly 
ambitions and social distinctions passed away (Gal. 6:14). He Himself 
who first loved them became the Person who welded them together, 
and only in the company of His disciples, who loved one another be- 
cause they loved Him, was the truth of His life preserved (John 15 : 
8-14). 

3. "The city of God, of which the Stoics doubtfully and feebly spoke, 
was now set up before the eyes of men. It was no unsubstantial city 
such as we fancy in the clouds, no invisible pattern such as Plato 

thought might be laid up in heaven, but a visible corporation Here 

the Gentile met the Jew whom he had been accustomed to regard as the 
enemy of the human race; the Roman met the lying Greek sophist, the 
Syrian slave the gladiator born beside the Danube. In brotherhood 
they met, the natural birth and kindred of each forgotten, the baptism 
alone remembered in which they had been born again to God and to 
each other." ("Ecce Homo," page 128.) 



1/ 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 3: A Fellowship of Love to Christ 



First Day: Baptism and the Lord's Supper Symbols of 
a Common Life 



1. This brotherhood consisted of societies scattered over the world. 
But they were all closely bound together into one community by ties of 
spiritual kinship (1 Peter 5:9). Individual congregations formed part 
of the one great Church of God (1 Cor 1:2; Gal. 1:13). This unity 
found expression in common sacraments, common meals, fellowship, and 
a well-ordered system of relief for such of the brethren as might be in 
need. 

2. Baptism. Each member was initiated into the Christian com- 
munity by undergoing the rite of baptism, in which he made public con- 
fession of Jesus as his Lord and the Son of God (Acts 10:48; cf. 1 John 
4:15). They were all baptized into Christ (Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27). 
What was signified thereby? (Rom. 6:4; 1 Peter 3:21). They were 
dead to their old life of sin and had begun a new life in fellowship with 
the risen Christ. Further, a new spirit was given them (Acts 2 : 38 ; 
11 : 16), which became a pledge of final salvation (2 Cor. 1 :2i, 22; Eph. 
1:13, 14). But its chief significance was the open acknowledgment of 
devotion to a common Head, whose Person was described by His name, 
the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:10-15: Phil. 2:9, 10), and in whom all 
believers formed one body (1 Cor. 12:12, 13). Baptism was thus a 
striking symbol of unity (Eph. 4:3-5). 

3. The common meal. Equally symbolic of unity was the common 
table round which the brethren gathered probably every day. In later 
years the love-feast was separated from the Lord's Supper, but it seems 
that in the early Church the daily evening meal was consecrated in 
memory of their Lord, and at the same time afforded the fullest fellow- 
ship between rich and poor, the brethren being one in love to Christ 
(1 Cor. 10:16, 17). Very instructive for the value of this sacrament 
to that church is the severe rebuke which Paul administers in 1 Cor. 11 : 
17-34. The conduct of the Corinthians was not only sacrilege, but a 
negation of Christian fellowship. 



18 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 3: A Fellowship of Love to Christ 



Second Day: Fellowship, Hospitality, Correspondence 

1. Fellowship. This word occurs frequently in the New Testament 
to cover all that may be included in an intercourse touching every phase 
of social and religious life. In the early chapters of Acts we have the 
Christian ideal of fellowship, which is no communism expressed in 
doctrinaire regulations, but springs from a love both willing to share 
with and receive from others (Acts 2:44-47; 4:34-37). Paul gave his 
readers special instructions to care for the poor (1 Cor. 13:3; Gal. 2: 
10). The third gospel also seems to emphasize the sympathy of Jesus 
for the poor (Luke 19:8) whose example would be closely followed by 
the brethren. This fellowship, however, meant more than relief of want. 
It was a gift of the Holy Spirit inducing brotherly kindness (1 John 
4:7, 8, 11; Heb. 13:16), the joy of intercourse between kindred minds 
in spiritual concerns (Gal. 2:9), or a common interest in the welfare of 
the Kingdom of God (Phil. 1:3-5). It bound all Christians together in 
a way that social needs or physical wants could never have done. But 
this fellowship was not only local, it embraced, as we shall see, the 
Church of God in all lands. 

2. Hospitality. Those were days of much traveling. Under the pro- 
tection of the Roman government the fine highways were thronged by 
commercial men, officials, students attending the universities, traveling 
physicians, lecturers. The crowds were in fact as motley as in our 
Western world. As the century grew many Christians would mingle 
in the throng — some on business or pleasure, many in haste to spread 
the message of the kingdom. For Aquila and Priscilla's journeys see 
1 Cor. 16:19; Rom. 16:3; Acts 18:2, 26. Other glimpses of the great 
movement to and fro among the churches are afforded by the saluta- 
tions with which Paul's letters so often close, and the greetings in other 
epistles (Rom. 16; Phil. 4: 21, 22; Heb. 13:2, 24). Hospitality was in 
that hostile world a fine Christian grace, the missionaries especially being 
as a rule gladly welcomed (3 John 5-10). 

3. Correspondence. Missionaries or messengers often brought letters 
from the apostles or from church to church (Phil. 2: 19, 25), which were 
read in gatherings of the brethren, and served to weld together the 
sundered parts of the Christian body (2 Cor. 3:1; Col. 4:16). 

Thus the bond uniting these brethren was not the system of a school 
of thought, nor any external organization, but the common fellowship 
of a large family, a household of faith, with its earthly sign-manual 
in common love, common hopes, and mutual help (Gal. 6:10; 1 Peter 
2:9, 10). 



19 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 3: A Fellowship of Love to Christ 



Third Day : The New Testament Passion for Unity 



1. No reader of the Pauline epistles can fail to detect the anxiety 
with which the apostle resists any disintegrating forces among the 
churches. This it is which gives its passion to the epistle to the 
Galatians (1:6, 7; 2:2, 5), and which causes Second Corinthians to 
throb vehemently. Paul's fear is lest the unity of Christendom should 
be shattered. If Jewish and Gentile Christianity stood disrupted, like the 
riven, clashing rocks of legend barring entrance to the Friendly Sea, the 
gospel would be in a hopeless case. Unity goes down deep (Gal. 3:28) ; 
hatred of schism is intense (1 Cor. 1:10-13). In his later years the 
sounds of the conflict between Jewish and Gentile Christians die away, 
and the apostle breaks into serene eloquence as he contemplates the 
marvelous glory of the one and invisible Church of Jesus Christ (Eph. 
2:14-17; 4:1-6), of which the local churches of the empire united in 
common service of the gospel are, in spite of all their blemishes, the visi- 
ble embodiment (4:12, 13; 5:27). 

2. But Paul was not content with this ideal of unity. He gave it 
expression in the well-organized system of contributions from the 
churches of the provinces in behalf of their poor brethren in the mother 
church at Jerusalem. He lays great stress on this as a practical proof 
of Christian fellowship (Rom. 15:26), whereby he hoped to heal the 
breach between the two sections; for if the Jew received help from his 
Gentile brother he could not avoid cherishing for him a more friendly 
regard. In order to render this community of love more impressive he 
has a deputation of representatives from each circle sent with the money, 
and he himself is their leader (2 Cor. 8:1-4, 23, 24; 9:1-4, 6, 7, 12, 14). 
By personal intercourse he hoped to disarm prejudice and unify all sec- 
tions in a common sympathy. Those will most appreciate the success 
of his undertaking who understand the national antagonisms of those 
times. 

3. Though Paul's conditions brought him into prominence as a cham- 
pion in securing a unified Christendom, other books of the New Testa- 
ment place no less importance on the cultivation of unity (Heb. 6:10; 
1 Peter 3:8; 4:8), while the conviction of the oneness of the brethren 
culminates in the Johannine writings (1 John 3:14; 4:7), being the 
dominant theme of the Intercessory Prayer (John 17:11, 21, 23, 26). 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 3: A Fellowship of Love to Christ 



Fourth Day: Brothers in a New Family: Disciples 



1. The members of the "Household of Faith" were "brothers." 
Their head was Jesus Christ, now absent from them in the body, but 
present in their midst by His Spirit (Heb. 2:11; 3:6; Matt. 28:20). 
Orphans in an evil world these brethren drew together seeking to obey 
the commands of their unseen Lord by living in love with one another 
(John 14:15-18; 15:18, 19). They are brothers by reason of a higher 
kinship than that of blood, their Master having warned his followers 
that they might have to sacrifice earthly relationships in order to gain 
higher privileges, for fellowship in the circle of those early brethren 
brought a keenness of joy that few if any had ever experienced in earthly 
homes (Matt. 12:49, 50; Mark 10:28-31). 

2. In accordance with this Christianity was a house religion. The 
gatherings of the brethren were held in the homes of the wealthier mem- 
bers, who probably not only gave the use of their rooms but supplied 
meals for the poorer among them and the slaves (1 Cor. 16: 15; Col. 4: 
15; Philem. 2). Under cover of night they would come to their love- 
feast — a slave perchance snatching an hour from his harsh owner, or a 
whilom Jewish family rich in spiritual inheritance but poor in this 
world's goods, even a Roman centurion, grave but contented in aspect, 
accompanied by a soldier of his band. To-night perhaps they come with 
eager interest, for yonder sits a man small of stature but keen of eye, 
though furrowed, and he bears the marks of hardship and is branded 
even on his face with wounds. Paul it is who presides at the feast. 
Trouble and the world are left outside. The door swings in on a court 
of peace. Each was supposed to share his brother's burdens (Gal. 6:2; 
James 5:16, 19, 20). But was it always so? In 1 Cor. 6:1-8; James 
4 : 1-4 we discover that dashes of dark color would often tone the idyllic 
brightness of the picture. 

3. Another common term in the Gospels and Acts for those who be- 
lieved in Jesus is "Disciple" (Acts 6:1; 9:38; 11:26; 21:16). This 
suggests the time when Jesus was in Galilee and called upon men to 
follow Him. It seems to have been a commoner title among the Jewish 
Christians, some of whom were His personal disciples, than among 
Gentiles, to whom He had first been made known as the risen Lord. 
Yet all were in a sense disciples of Jesus, for He was the living Lord 
of every Christian, and the old commandment, "follow me," was new 
with each generation of believers who sought "to walk even as He 
walked" (1 John 2:6-8; 1 Peter 2:21). 



21 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 
Study 3: A Fellowship of Love to Christ 



Fifth Day : Saint, Slave, Christian. 

1. "Saint" is one of the most usual designations for the brethren, 
especially in the Pauline epistles, Hebrews and Revelation (Rom. 1:7; 
Heb. 3:1). Separated from a sinful world they are consecrated to the 
service of God. Why are they also called "the elect"? (Col. 3:12; 
1 Peter 1:1.) Individually united to Christ they felt that they owed 
everything to God's grace (Gal. 1:15), and had been chosen by Him 
out of the world to serve Him (1 Cor. 1:2; Eph. 1:4). As saints they 
have received the Holy Spirit which seals them as belonging to another 
world (1 Peter 1:2; Eph. 1 : 13, 14; 1 John 2:27; 4:13). 

2. "Slave." This most opprobrious of epithets becomes, when inter- 
preted in the light of Christ's redemptive love, a favorite term for the 
Christian's devotion to the Lord who owns him absolutely. For the 
full figure see 1 Cor. 6:19, 20. Was this slavery galling? An answer is 
given in Gal. 5 : 13 ; 6 : 17. The will of God is no yoke (Heb. 13 :20, 21). 

3. "Christian." This title was really, when accepted, a confession of 
Jesus as the Messiah. From Phil. 2:11; Heb. 3:1; Matt. 16:16, 18 we 
seem to be justified in inferring that every candidate for baptism was re- 
quired to make public acknowledgment that Jesus was the Christ, the Son 
of the living God ; and this practice, which dated probably from the begin- 
ning of the preaching of the gospel (Acts 2:38), may have given rise 
to this name for the brethren. We need not concern ourselves with the 
time and place of its origin, though the incident in Acts 11:26 bears 
the stamp of verisimilitude. The name occurs only twice elsewhere in 
the New Testament (Acts 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16), but in a short time it 
dispossessed all others, and was current in Rome probably by 64 A. D. 
At the beginning of the second century it was accepted by believers as 
their fit and proper designation. Ignatius, the date of whose death may 
be put down at 117 A. D., says, "that I may not only be called a Christian 
but also be found one" (Rom. 3). The Christian was really "the Christ's 
man." 

4. These terms show that the Christian community not only enjoyed 
a common life, but that Jesus Christ was the heart and soul of their 
fellowship. Nothing was too dear to yield to Him. His sword cut sharp 
and deep, as it does still, separating between father and son, mother and 
daughter, though the excluded ones soon found in the company of the 
faithful greater love than they had ever known ; often they had to take 
a road that led out to death, for on it they saw the footsteps of their 
Master (Matt. 10:34-39). There was one Name that acted as a spell 
upon these brethren (Acts 5:41; Phil. 2:10; 3 John 7), while it roused 
Jew and Gentile to passionate hatred. 



22 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 3: A Fellowship of Love to Christ 



Sixth Day : The Body of Christ, the Church, the New 

Israel 

1. There were in that brotherhood two complementary tendencies, 
altruism and individualism, which when separated have often done harm. 
The Christian was not a hermit seeking to save his own soul apart from 
his fellows, nor was he an insignificant atom lost in the fellowship at 
large. He was a brother among brethren, a saint among the elect, a sub- 
ject in the kingdom, a member of the body of Christ, a citizen of the 
true Israel (1 Peter 2:4-10). 

2. Several terms were applied to the whole fellowship of believers. 
Of these Paul often uses "the Body of Christ." (See especially 1 Cor. 
I2:i2ff. ; cf. Eph. 4:11-16.) Christ is the Head from whom life per- 
vades the organism, the well-being of the whole depending on the well- 
being even of the smallest part. Thus the Christian churches were not 
loosely articulated societies, but spiritual organisms united in common 
life from the living Christ. 

3. This ideal body is often called "the Church." It was no abstract 
term, but was partially realized all over the Roman Empire in com- 
munities, whose members were supplied by the Holy Spirit with gifts 
(1 Cor. 12:1-11; 1 Peter 4:10). Does the New Testament put the 
primary emphasis on the redemption of the Church as a whole, or the 
individual? How is the individual related to the body? (Matt. 16: 
16-19; 18:15-17; Acts 20:28; Eph. 4:11-13; 5:25-27.) 

4. This new creation did not rise upon the world unheralded and un- 
related to the past. There has been only one house which God has been 
building through the ages. Long ago were the patriarchs, Moses and 
the prophets, who ministered in more primitive and lesser rooms while 
the national Israel was God's chosen people (Heb. 1:1; 3 : 1-6). Earthly 
Israel, however, proved unfaithful; it rejected its Messiah (John 1: 
11-13) ; wherefore God hath rejected the nation as such (Luke 20: 
9-19) ; but a holy kernel survives, those who accepted Jesus as Messiah, 
and has now been served heir to the promises. The brotherhood be- 
comes "the new Israel," the true house of God. The faithful Gentile 
is the real Son of Abraham, the true Israelite, most glorious of names 
to a Jew (Gal. 3:7; 6:16; 1 Peter 2:9, 10). Of what magni- 
tude and order must those brethren have conceived Christ to be, when 
He entered like a new planet into their world system, and could com- 
pel the Jew out of his old national orbit into the sweep of spiritual 
powers in a new realm? 



23 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 3: A Fellowship of Love to Christ 



Seventh Day : The Kingdom of the Son of His Love 



1. The Kingdom of God. Though this term occurs seldom in the 
epistles, it is probably the most comprehensive idea in Christ's teaching, 
and brings out the fullness of the life of the Church particularly well. 
Its rare occurrence in the epistles was due partly to the unfamiliarity 
of the Greeks with the Jewish conception of the theocracy, and partly 
to the fact that their earlier national life and political ideals, selfish and 
partisan as they were, supplied no impressive framework for the sphere 
of the divine sovereignty. To the original disciples the term would 
mean more, for not only were they Jews, but they had heard Jesus 
preach the gospel of the kingdom in Galilee. 

2. The term as it was used by the Christians of the epistles was no 
ideal of resurgent national hopes, nor a kingdom of this world, such 
as Gentiles would belong to, in which emperors and their subordinates 
sought to aggrandize themselves rather than to serve the people. It 
was the Kingdom of God because it signified God's rule. Wherever He 
holds sway there is the kingdom, whether it be in the heart of the in- 
dividual in whom His Spirit is working out His will (Rom. 14:17), or 
in the multitude of subjects who live a common life under the laws of 
that kingdom. Its true sphere is in the unseen world lying beyond the 
present, but it has come to earth and is being wrought out in the hearts 
of men. Christ who has been entrusted with the establishment of that 
kingdom is proving Himself Lord by the victory He is gaining in the 
hearts of men (1 Cor. 15:24, 25; Col. 1:13), and that victory will be 
complete. But the final glory of the kingdom will only be manifest 
when the present shall have given way to a new heaven and a new earth 
(Rev. 21: if.; Heb. 12:28). Then shall each be perfect in all, the whole 
kingdom being a community of the perfect forming one complete hu- 
manity in Christ Jesus (Eph. 4:13). 

3. All the designations of this brotherhood, whether individual or 
corporate, thus draw their significance from Jesus Christ, with whom 
each and all were linked in "an enthusiasm of loyalty and devotion." 
Across the Roman Empire were strung invisible chords of love and 
faith binding the several churches together, and as the experience of 
their life, joyful or grievous, swept through them, it turned into a 
melody of adoration to Jesus as Lord. 



24 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 4: The Hope of the Brotherhood 



First Day: A Reversal of Values 



1. A ruling conviction of the brotherhood was that the unseen world 
is of overwhelming importance as compared with the present. It is 
the world of realities; this world is a world of shadows, and with its 
ambitions and false desires is passing away (Heb. 2:5; 11:3; 2 Cor. 5: 
1 ; 1 John 2:17). Though believers live on earth, their true citizenship 
is in heaven (Phil. 3:20, 21; 1 Thess. 2:12), and that glorious in- 
heritance is being kept for them, as they also are being guarded for it in 
the midst of the temptations and sufferings of the present (1 Peter 1: 
4,5). 

2. In view of this transcendent world to which the believer is heir, 
his present distress may well be endured (Rom. 8: i8fL) until he reaches 
the new Jerusalem whose glory even now rises above the shock of con- 
flict (Rev. 21: if). There was among these brethren a heroic indif- 
ference to the worst that the world could do. What though they are 
plundered of their goods? (Heb. 10:34.) Are they the sport of men 
and of angels, the refuse of the world? (1 Cor. 4:9, 11-13.) Nothing 
can shake their bold confidence in God, for their future is assured (Rom. 
8:18). Indeed, trial is a joy, affliction a purifying fire (James 1:2; 
1 Peter 1:6, 7). Tossed though they are on a sea of troubles in this 
present world they cannot drift, for their hope, an anchor that will not 
snap, is plunged into the unseen depths and holds them firm to irremov- 
able realities (Heb. 6:19, 20). This faith had been verified by the pres- 
ence in their midst of the powers of the world to come (Heb. 6:5). 

3. Their triumph over death was a proof of the intensity of their 
hope. The popular mind was enslaved by terror of death, but Jew or 
Gentile, philosopher or unlearned, when he had once discovered eternal 
life in Jesus Christ, cast from him his fear and faced the unseen with 
joy (Heb. 2:14, 15; 1 Cor. 15:55; 1 John 4:17, 18). Death is drowned 
in an ocean of life (2 Cor. 5:4), for the individual will exchange his 
present mortality for a glorious tenement which is awaiting him even 
now in heaven (2 Cor. 5:1, 2). 



25 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 4: The Hope of the Brotherhood 



Second Day : The Risen Christ the Heart of Their 

Hope 



1. The simple reason of this joy in facing the future was that the 
unknown had been made known to them. To die was to be with Christ 
(Phil. 1:23). Jesus stands over the dying, stilling him to sleep as a 
mother her child, and he awakes in the light of eternal day (1 Thess. 
4:14). The average Christian, unlike his Master, had no Gethsemane, 
and no agony such as his sinless Lord endured on the cross. 

2. Their victory over death and their hopes spring from faith in the 
risen and living Christ (1 Peter 1:3; Heb. 2:5-9; 1 Cor. 15:12-19). He 
is the Prince of life at the right hand of God (Acts 3:15). Though 
absent in heaven His presence is imminent over this world, and we may 
take Rev. 1 : 13-18 as a description of the way in which some of the 
Christians would picture their Lord enthroned in majesty. But an even 
more beautiful figure is that of the Lamb who will shepherd the souls 
of men in eternal life (Rev. 7:17). 

3. Christ will be forever the central glory of the future realm, for 
as the believer is even now complete in Him (Col. 2:10), he is also 
call ed to the eternal glory of God in Christ Jesus (1 Peter 5:10), and 
the vision of the Christ shall transform the believer into His likeness 
(1 John 3:2). Christ will always be the Saviour and Redeemer (Rev. 
5:12, 13). The Son will introduce His many brethren, who in obedience 
follow Him, into the presence of God (Heb. 2:10, 11). Ranged round 
Jesus Christ believers will through Him attain unto perfect sonship 
(Rom. 8:29). 



26 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 4: The Hope of the Brotherhood 



Third Day: The Fullness of Life in the Glorious 
Company of the Saints 



1. The coming kingdom is not a realm like the present, for flesh and 
blood shall not inherit it (1 Cor. 15:50). There shall be a new body- 
suited to the spiritual sphere, like unto the glorious body of the risen 
Christ (1 Cor. 15:23, 44, 49). No human tongue can describe the 
grandeur of that future (1 Cor. 2:6-9). Indeed this salvation engaged 
the attention of inspired men of old (1 Peter 1:10-12), and at present 
the believer has only a foretaste of the final salvation (Eph. 1 : 14). 

2. But in that future, the new Canaan, the Rest of God (Heb. 4:9; 
12:22), believers shall be pure and spotless, each possessing his own 
unique salvation (Jude 24). Will there be growth in that world? It 
seems to be implied in Matt. 5 : 48 ; 2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 4:13; 1 John 3 : 2. 

3. Each will be perfect in all. Just as on earth no disciple could 
cherish the true life apart from fellowship with his brethren (1 John 
4:12, 20, 21), so in the heavenly city the glory of believers is an in- 
heritance among the saints. It will be fullness of life because there will 
be perfect fellowship of love between Father, Son and brethren (Heb. 
12 : 22-24 ; 1 John 1:3, 4 ; Eph. 1:18). The eternal Church of God will 
be a magnificent unity composed of infinite variety, each perfect life of 
the organism flashing forth like a facet its ray of light, as a share of the 
glorious radiance streaming from the whole Body of Christ to illuminate 
all worlds in the oncoming ages, with a knowledge of the marvelous 
riches of the wisdom of God (Eph. 2:7; 3:10; 4:13-16). Moreover, 
this glory will emancipate all creation, which is straining its eye for the 
advent of the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rom. 8:19). 

3. In the gospels also we find the same hope for the future, though 
many of the aspects of the kingdom which they contain are concerned 
with its progress in the present world. However, the present is lived 
under the light of the future, and it is difficult to say whether Jesus 
lays more stress on one than on the other. The blessedness of the 
coming kingdom is pictured as a banquet at which there will be a goodly 
fellowship of patriarchs and prophets (Luke 13:28; 14:15; 22:18, 30). 
Similar conceptions appear in the fourth gospel, where (14 — 16) the 
believer is promised perfect communion with his Lord in an eternal 
heavenly home. 



27 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 4: The Hope of the Brotherhood 



Fourth Day : The Return of Jesus 

1. Though Jesus is now in heaven He will return to consummate His 
kingdom surrounded with all the majesty of a royal progress (1 Thess. 
4:16; Matt. 26:64). Various terms occur in the New Testament to 
describe this personal return of Jesus. One of these, "Apocalypse," or 
"Revelation" (2 Thess. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:7; 1 Peter 1:7, 13; 4: 13), suggests 
the thought that Jesus, though hidden from view, stands ready to appear 
at any moment, whenever the curtains are drawn aside which now hide 
that world of realities from mortal gaze. A similar term, "Appearing," 
is a favorite in the pastoral epistles (1 Tim. 6:14; Titus 2:13). But 
the most familiar is "Parousia," "Presence," or "Coming" (1 Cor. 15: 
23; James 5: 7; 1 John 2:28). This last word seems to have been in 
general employment. 

2. The present was thought to be the scene of a mighty conflict, 
though the result is not doubtful, for Jesus must put all His enemies 
under His feet. In every movement of nature, every convulsion of the 
wicked world they beheld a death throe of the defeated adversary 
(2 Thess. 2:7, 8; Rev. 20:1-3). Meantime on earth the followers of 
Jesus are helping Him in His struggle (Col. 1:24), for they are fellow- 
laborers with Him while He stands "within the shadow, keeping watch 
above His own." 

3. There can be no doubt that the writers of the New Testament be- 
lieved not only that the battle between Christ and His adversary was 
already won in principle, because he had been smitten to the death 
(1 Peter 3 :22; Col. 2 : 15), but also that this spiritual fact would soon be- 
come manifest to the world. Jesus would ere long return in glory to this 
earth to judge the living and the dead and to bring His kingdom to its 
consummation. This cosmic event was expected to happen in the first 
generation of believers, for such seems to be the only reasonable inter- 
pretation of passages like 1 Thess. 4:15; 1 Cor. 15:51; Rom. 13:12; 
Heb. 10 : 37 ; James 5:751 Peter 4:7;! John 2:18; Rev. 22 : 20. 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 4: The Hope of the Brotherhood 



Fifth Day: Phases of Belief in the Return of Jesus 

1. There seems to have been a gradual development in the conception 
of the Church of the first century as to the return of Jesus. At first, 
while the brethren were a sect of Judaism, they had no thought of carry- 
ing the gospel to the wider Gentile world, but hoped that their people 
would repent and prove themselves to be the true Israel (Acts 3: 19-21). 
Not till then would the Lord return to dwell on earth among a holy 
people. But experience soon proved that Israel according to the flesh 
would not repent, and that even as they had put Messiah to death they 
would also persecute His growing kingdom (Acts 7:51-53). 

2. Then came the expansion of the Church to the Gentile world, 
opening up a vista of wide conquests to be made for the risen Christ. 
So the Church threw herself with vigor into the thick of the heathen 
powers in league with the world-god. Christ was with her. His Spirit 
was going before her so evidently that she thought less than formerly 
of His personal return to the earth. The missionaries were doing His 
bidding in carrying this gospel to the world (Mark 13:10), at first 
probably without any active resistance on the part of the governments. 
But the promise of the return was never forgotten. 

3. Then persecution broke. Rome as well as Jerusalem became hos- 
tile, and the awful hatred of the world for the Kingdom of God was 
revealed. How can the victorious Son brook such evil so long? was the 
question on many a lip. Maran-atha, a cry for relief, was the prayer of 
many a heart. But it is probable that as persecution waxed or waned it 
brought into distinctness or allowed to grow dim for a time this convic- 
tion of His return, which was always on the horizon-line of the life of 
that early Church. 

4. With the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A. D., the danger to the Church 
from the Jew diminished, but the Roman Empire became a worse foe 
(see Revelation). By the end of the century Antichrist is not a national 
but a spiritual power — those who deny that Jesus is the true Son of God 
(1 John 2: 18; 4: 1-3). So violent has the denial grown that the time is 
ripe for destruction. Finally, it is to be observed that the fourth gospel 
enlarges upon the return of Jesus in the Paraclete, while the thought of 
the immediate personal appearing has become less central. 



29 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 

Study 4: The Hope of the Brotherhood 



Sixth Day : A Misinterpretation and Its Blessing 

1. Notwithstanding their strong hopes for the return of Jesus that 
early Church was disappointed, and no small danger of unbelief accom- 
panied the disappointment (1 Thess. 4:13-18; Heb. 10:36-39; 2 Peter 
3:4). How then did they come to entertain the conviction ? 

2. One of the largest ideas of Old Testament prophecy was that of 
the Day of the Lord, when Jehovah would appear in majesty to judge 
His people, sifting out the faithful remnant, destroying rebellious Israel, 
and establishing His reign in righteousness (Mai. 3:2ff. ; Isa. n:4ff., 
13). This Day was always thought of as near, and was regarded 
as the one event by which the kingdom would be consummated. 

3. Now the disciples were Jews, and were accustomed to think of 
this Day of the Lord as the one swift crisis, when the Kingdom of God 
which Jesus preached would be manifested to their own generation in 
all its glory. They were merely doing what every prophet had done 
before them. With their literal ideas of the kingdom not altogether 
purged away, they interpreted Christ's sayings as to His return (Mark 
13:24-27) as a single event near at hand. They misunderstood His pre- 
diction as to His resurrection also (Mark 9:31), and we cannot be 
surprised that they were equally sluggish with regard to His other say- 
ings on the future (Mark 13:32; Acts 1:6, 7). Living in the small 
valley of their Jewish national life the early Christians only saw the sun 
striking through and illuminating their own hillsides. But Jesus was 
to be the Saviour of the world, and His Spirit illumining them dis- 
pelled the clouds, when the disciples found that He was to come and 
bathe far distant plains and islands of the sea in His light. We know 
that the Day of the Lord is stretching over centuries. 

4. And yet this misinterpretation, or preferably this necessary limita- 
tion of their understanding of their Master, served in the providence of 
God a good purpose. Those Christians felt assured of victory provided 
they could scale the heights immediately in front of them. Never has 
confidence in the power of Christ been more needed than during the 
awful experience of that untried Church. They believed that He was 
with them and that the struggle would not be long. So they faced the 
terrible odds and won. That was all they were asked to do. As far 
as they were concerned it was the end of their world, and undoubtedly 
the Day of the Lord had begun when Jerusalem fell in 70 A. D. But 
if they had known that other generations would have to face other anti- 
christs, the early believers might have grown faint-hearted at the pros- 
pect of distant years, and not have carried the gospel so eagerly to the 
world. Their limited knowledge thus became a blessing to us who have 
entered into their labors. 



30 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 
Study 4: The Hope of the Brotherhood 



Seventh Day : The Permanent Truth of the Chris- 
tian's Hope 

1. The effect of the expectation of the speedy return of Jesus upon 
the life of the primitive believers has often been exaggerated. Though 
in some quarters this hope led to undue enthusiasm under the influence 
of which men began to abandon their daily pursuits, this was sporadic 
(2 Thess. 2:2; 3:10, 11), and there was on the whole a wonderful moral 
balance in that early Church. Such a belief must have somewhat af- 
fected the conditions of society and its ideals, but no more permanent 
condition of uncertainty was introduced for the individual than faces 
every man now in the fact of the unknown day of his death. And society 
itself was regenerated just by the men who cherished these hopes. They 
did not disregard their present duties, nor become ascetics. On the con- 
trary they wrought into practice the most perfect and sane code of 
morals for a life under ordinary conditions in this world that has ever 
been known. The reason was that equally important with the promise 
of Christ's return, if indeed it was not more so, was His command to 
obey Him (John 14:15-21), and the shortness of life did not prevent its 
being a field of discipline for character. 

2. But in truth the time element was not the most important part of 
their hope. The Christians knew that they had actually been transferred 
out of darkness into the Kingdom of the Son of God's love (Col. 1 : 13). 
Already they were in the enjoyment of the Holy Spirit which was to 
them an overwhelming proof of the value and reality of the other world 
(1 Peter 1:12; Eph. 1:13, 14; Heb. 6:4, 5; 1 John 4:13). Their spiritual 
experience was as_ real a proof to them of the existence of the 
heavenly city as their sense experience was of the reality of the present 
seen world (Heb. 11:1-3). That real world was separated from the 
present by a mere handbreadth, and the curtain must soon rise and dis- 
close its glory. This remains the permanent truth of our hope also. 
The present earthly scene is of short duration. Even here we have eter- 
nal life, but flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. 

3. So the judgments of men were reversed. Paul gives the Chris- 
tian view in 1 Cor. 2:6-16; 2 Cor. 4:4. These brethren did not appraise 
their worldly goods at small value because they were of short tenure, 
but because they had the mind of Christ and knew that they were in- 
herently of little worth. They wished to save their life (Mark 8:34-38), 
and their treasure and heart were both secure beyond the vicissitudes 
of the present (Matt. 6:19-21). It was not only a few philosophic 
minds who enjoyed such serene confidence. Buoyancy pervaded the 
brotherhood. Why did they place such enormous value on the unseen 
world? Whence came this matchless hope, this faith that subdued an 
empire ? 

31 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 5: The Sense of Power in the Brotherhood 



First Day: Miraculous Powers Accompany and Flow 
from the Preaching of the Gospel 



1. The conviction of the brotherhood that supernatural power was 
in their midst may be illustrated from nearly every writing of the New 
Testament. It broke forth upon them at baptism as the gift of the Holy 
Spirit, which was a confirmation to them by God Himself that the gos- 
pel was the truth (Heb. 2:3, 4). Here and now they enjoy the powers 
of the coming Messianic age. They are an essential part of their life of 
faith whereby they have a vivid experience of the real world beyond 
(Heb. 6:5). Paul also had large evidence of similar effects accompany- 
ing his preaching (1 Thess. 1:5; Gal. 3:5). Indeed the same extraor- 
dinary display of energy welled forth from every group of believers 
from Jerusalem to Illyricum, the farthest point the apostle had reached 
before writing the letter to the Romans (Rom. 15:18-20). 

2. The ordinary terms employed are "powers," "marvels," "signs." 
The first describes the event as a display of divine energy (Acts 3 : 12 ; 
4:7; Eph. 3:7, 16) working through the individual Christian as an 
instrument. The word "marvel" or "wonder" brings out the effect of 
astonishment with which the miracle strikes the beholder (2 Cor. 12:12), 
while "sign" refers to it as a deed of divine origin. The miracle is not 
a dead, unrelated fact, but an action with a meaning (1 Cor. 14:22). 

3. Every member of the Corinthian Church, it would appear, was 
endowed with some spiritual gift. Different as these gifts were they all 
came from God, who granted each a manifestation of the same spirit 
for the common good (1 Cor. 12:4-11). They were not only such as 
might be used for edification in their common gatherings — prophecy, 
faith, "tongues," interpretation of this strange speech, ability to dis- 
criminate prophetic utterance, but there were works of healing and 
miraculous powers. The ordinary Corinthian had a wrong scale of 
values. Greek as he was he regarded enthusiasm as a token of the in- 
dwelling God, and went to excess in the use of the gift of tongues, 
which often degenerated into frenzied ejaculations, unintelligible to the 
congregation. Paul discountenances this misuse of a real spiritual 
power (1 Cor. 14:1-25). All gifts were to be employed in the service 
of the brotherhood (1 Peter 4: 10, n). This is a fundamental law of the 
kingdom. 



32 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 5. The Sense of Power in the Brotherhood 



Second Day: A Constant Belief Throughout the New 

Testament 



1. A further illustration of the way in which the Church of the latter 
half of the first century believed that the Spirit of God had been mani- 
fested within it, is afforded by the Book of Acts. This treatise is written 
under the conviction that a personal Spirit of power coming from the 
risen Jesus guided the fortunes of the brethren (Acts 1:8). The 
Church is born at Pentecost by an act of power (Acts 2:1-4). Ananias 
and Sapphira, whose treason would wreck the mutual confidence of the 
brethren, are visited by sudden death (5:1-11). Not only do gifts of 
healing appear in their midst, but the demons are driven out and the 
dead raised (Acts 3: if. ; 5:12; 9:36-43; 20:7-10). They believed, too, 
that Jesus Himself had given them this power (Luke 10:19, 20). 

2. The miraculous element in the life of the early Church is also 
illuminated by Mark 16 : 9-20. As they stand the verses are not part of 
this original gospel, but they may be used for our present purpose, 
which is to show the conviction of the brotherhood during the first 
century. (See especially 17, 18, most of which may be paralleled from 
Acts.) The miraculous endowment was threefold: (1) For edifica- 
tion of the brethren; (2) healing diseases and averting deadly results; 
(3) driving out demons. Further, the passage, like Acts and Luke, 
connects this miraculous power with Jesus Christ. It is an accompani- 
ment of the introduction into the world of the Kingdom of God which 
He preached. 

' 3. Thus throughout the New Testament there is an unbroken convic- 
tion to the effect that that period was exceptional, and that the believers 
had been invested by Jesus with new powers, His Spirit working in 
them to this effect. It is impossible to deny that there were in those 
early years such manifestations (see First Day). Were they tokens of 
the Divine presence as the Christians themselves believed? To deny 
their interpretation is not merely to say that they were mistaken as to 
some events of their life, but to hold that their whole world-view was 
incorrect. Miracles were to them as much a sign of the presence of 
God's Spirit as was their new life. Indeed they were inseparable, for 
the new life was a miraculous creation (2 Cor. 5:17). 



33 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 5: The Sense of Power in the Brotherhood 



Third Day : The Conquering Gospel 



1. We must not overestimate these outward miraculous signs as 
though they were regarded by the writers of the New Testament as the 
supreme proof of supernatural power. Far from it ; their life as a whole 
was the display of power. It was a mighty stream sweeping everything 
before it. The inherent dynamic of the gospel is seen in the aggressive- 
ness of its first preachers. A handful of men, reckless of their lives, en- 
deavor to take by assault first the Jewish nation and then the Roman 
world ; and that in spite of the conviction that the present age had only 
a few years to run. Nor did they regard Rome or Judaism as tottering 
through internal decay. That world was not senile. Palestine was far 
more prosperous than it is to-day. Antioch, Tarsus, Ephesus, Corinth, 
Rome were centers of enormous wealth and fine culture. The audacity 
of these missionaries w r as only matched by their success. 

2. The leaders of this activity were the apostles, who held their 
primacy not only because they had fuller knowledge, but also by reason 
of their power in spreading the gospel (1 Cor. 9:2; 2 Cor. 3:2; 12:12). 
Theirs was no mere official rank. None equalled the greatest of the 
apostles in the extent to which they laid the foundations of the gospel. 

3. Consider the confidence of this Paul. Of a race despised by 
Roman and Greek, hated by his fellow Jews, he is not ashamed to face 
Rome with the gospel (Rom. 1:15, 16), though it had been the scorn 
of the wise Greek, for he knows that many will be gripped by this power 
of God unto salvation. Nor does he leave us in any doubt as to the 
source of his superhuman energy. As a man of the world he is held in 
slight esteem, so much so indeed that on his arrival in Galatia, a 
stranger, all but done to death, branded with slavery scars of Christ, 
his plight almost revolted those who saw him (Gal. 4:13, 14; 6:17). 
Before and since he has been the plaything of every fortune. Again and 
again in some strait when he asked himself whether this was death at 
last his heart would answer, Yes! (2 Cor. 1:9). His body is wearing 
thin because of his hardships, but through the veil of his flesh is seen the 
image of the new man created in Christ (2 Cor. 4:7-18; 11:16-33; 12: 
9, 10). The power of the living Christ is almost incandescent in this 
vessel of clay. 



34 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 
Study 5: The Sense of Power in the Brotherhood 



Fourth Day: In Demonstration of the Spirit and of 

Power 

1. If the apostles held forth the word of power like bright lights far 
off on inhospitable capes or islands on the ocean of heathenism, there 
were multitudes of lesser men flashing out the truth along the shores. 
Indeed it is impossible to estimate the power of the unknown missionary. 
How often was the planting of churches done by obscure believers (Acts 
8:4, 5 ; 11 : 19-24). The church to which Hebrews was written had been 
evangelized by unknown persons (Heb. 2:3); that of Rome — the im- 
perial city— owed its origin to no apostle ; so also the church of Colossse 
(Col. 1:4). 

2. The life of that church showed itself in its missionary zeal. 
Within their borders such a powerful fountain of living water had 
suddenly burst forth that it streamed down upon the world in every 
direction. And fruits of the Spirit grew luxuriantly along the water 
courses from the soil that had hitherto been quite barren. This active 
propaganda of the faith is as evident at the end of the century in 
Johannine circles as at the beginning (3 John 7, 8). They expected the 
hatred of the world indeed (1 John 3:13), but when Rome has shown 
her teeth a Jew dares to defy her in the words of Rev. 18 : 16, 17, 20. 
Daunted at nothing they found their chief joy in the spread of the gos- 
pel (2 Thess. 3:1; Phil. 1:12-20). 

3. In Ephesus, Athens and Corinth Paul was first regarded as one 
of a multitude of itinerant rhetoricians who took stock themes from 
conventional morality. These "sophists" were like modern clergymen 
in whom the professional has absorbed the minister. They made a 
trade of their eloquence. The "philosopher," often wearing a distinctive 
garb, would gather a crowd, but he could not handle the problems of 
life with earnestness (1 Cor. 1:20, 21). At first the Athenians thought 
that Paul was "a picker-up of learning's chips," and then they politely 
dismissed him (Acts 17: i8fi\). In contrast with the other lecturers who 
sought to impart by rhetoric some of the culture which was the training 
of every gentleman, the Christian prophet or apostle spoke not in ex- 
cellency of speech, but with divine inspiration (1 Cor. 2:1-5, 12, 13). 
Many were subdued into obedience to this word of power, while others 
stared at such unwonted conviction and passed by. (For this study 
see Hatch, "Influence of Greek Ideas on Christian Church"; MahafFy's 
"Greek World under Roman Sway" ; Gildersleeve's "Essay on Apollonius 
of Tyana in Classical Essays" ; Zeller's "Philosophic der Griechen," III., 
2, pp. 126-137; Ramsay's "St. Paul the Traveler and Roman Citizen," 
ch. xi.) 



35 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 5: The Sense of Power in the Brotherhood 



Fifth Day: The Defeat of Magic 



1. There is not a trace of credulity in the New Testament. Its 
writers do not record strange portents, nor fill their pages with freakish 
displays of the extraordinary. They are convinced that the power which 
is within the Church is moral, and must express itself in restrained 
and congruous manifestations. In marked contrast to this was the prac- 
tice of magic, which had a greater hold than philosophy on that world, 
because it was thought to be a gateway to the supernatural universe, 
before which philosophical speculation stood helpless. Magic had wide 
vogue, not only in the Orient, Egypt and Asia Minor, but particularly 
in Samaria, and as a forbidden art among the Jews. It was based on 
a universal belief in the existence of demons, against which charms 
were supposed to be potent. The exorcist, accidental and sporadic 
though his power was in scattering here and there an evil spirit (Matt. 
12:27-30), enjoyed much repute. But he was in truth morally helpless. 

2. Paul speaks of the world-rulers of this darkness as an atmosphere 
enveloping life to be dissipated only by the light of the gospel (Eph. 6: 
12). With faith in the conquering Christ the Christian faced the realm 
of evil spirits and drove magic from the field wherever he went (1 Peter 
3:22; Rom. 8:38, 39). Christ not only was believed to have opened up 
the new world which magic sought to compass, but to have had a 
triumphant progress through all the regions of the universe. His 
death had been cosmic in its effects. It had been a final blow struck at 
the heart of the kingdom of darkness, and remnants of its dead or dying 
powers were seen here and there, as the Christian passed hither and 
thither victorious in the name of Christ (Luke 10:17; Eph. 4:8-10; Col. 
2:15). 

3. Of several instances recorded in Acts of the worsting of magicians 
by the new preachers, the most remarkable is the case of Simon Magus 
(Acts 8:9-24), round whose name an immense romance and literature 
has grown. (See also Acts 13:6-12; 19:13-19.) It is beyond doubt that 
this sovereignty began with Jesus Himself (Mark 3:23-27), who saw in 
His success a proof that the kingdom of evil was being dispossessed by 
the stronger One. Here again the power resides in the dominance of a 
new Person. (See Ramsay, "St. Paul the Traveler," ch. iv.) 



36 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 5: The Sense of Power in the Brotherhood 



Sixth Day : Kept by the Power of God Unto Salvation 



1. The Christian not only possessed exceptional powers and had con- 
fidence to go anywhere with his gospel, but he was of this mind because 
he felt that he was in the protection of an invincible Power (1 John 5: 
18). Undoubtedly the odds against him were enormous. To an on- 
looker his life was little more than a vapor drifting for a day on cur- 
rents of erratic and irresistible force (James 4:14). Behind this visible 
world there was, he thought, the world-god, lord of innumerable evil 
spirits, whose influence was so subtle that he breathed it into his life 
(Eph. 6:12). There was the stream of temptation to ease, worldly 
hopes, and past association in which many were submerged (Heb. 4:1; 
10:35-39). Multitudes endured a fearful struggle against apostasy. 

2. But the average Christian had joyful confidence. This is a favorite 
term in the New Testament vocabulary (Acts 4:13, 29; Phil. 1:20; 
Heb. 3:6; 1 John 3:21; 4:17). Their God was encamped round about 
them (1 Peter 1 '.4, 5). It was no slight demand that was made on the 
Jewish Christians to entrust their life and its fortunes to the new Israel. 
Nay, they ventured heroically in abandoning their patriotism, the pres- 
tige of a religion consecrated by the promises of God and the glory 
of temple and ritual, for a religion without visible mediator or offer- 
ing, with no history behind it or social rank, almost bare in its spiritual 
simplicity. (This lies at the basis of much of the argument of He- 
brews. See 4:14-16; 6:17-20; 7:26-28; 8:1-13; 9:8-10, etc.) Hardly 
less was required of a Gentile who had to face the scorn of his fellows 
in joining a foreign brotherhood. In fact nothing but an overwhelming 
sense of the power of Jesus would have made them willing for the sacri- 
fice (John 10:27-30). If God was for them, who could be against them? 
(Rom. 8:28-39.) 

3. This confidence is often described as "enthusiasm." But the mat- 
ter does not end there. How was this enthusiasm created? In ordinary 
life enthusiasm is not always a coefficient of strength. The enthusiastic 
elements are often the least permanent, being dependent on some excit- 
ing cause. Enthusiasm is not a proper description of the tide of life that 
came in irresistibly and covered forever unhealthy marshes, jagged 
reefs and piteous wrecks. In the New Testament it is coming to the 
flood. Never since in Christendom has it fallen to where it was. 



37 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 

Study 5: The Sense of Power in the Brotherhood 



Seventh Day : The Holy Spirit of Christ the Source of 

Power 

1. There were of course gifts of the Spirit which might be termed 
"enthusiastic," but the message of the Kingdom was not merely flung 
out as Christians gladly abandoned themselves to any danger. Endur- 
ance was as much required as enthusiasm, and wisdom, discernment and 
government were equally noteworthy proofs of the Spirit's presence 
(1 Cor. 12:8-11). The Christian's finest fruit came through the endur- 
ance whereby he was to win his life (Luke 8 : 15 ; 21 : 19 ; Heb. 10 136-39) . 
He was perfectly conscious of His strength, of which miracles were only 
one expression. 

2. His conviction was that the living Christ was the source of power 
within him (Rom. 8:11, 14, 15). Two facts are associated in the New 
Testament — the indwelling of a Spirit within the brethren, and its 
source in Christ who died for them and rose again (John 20:22; Luke 
24 : 49 ; Acts 15:8; 2 Cor. 1 : 21, 22 ; Heb. 2:4; 6:4; 1 Peter 1:2). That 
Spirit was a portion of another world, an earnest of final salvation (Eph. 
1 : 13, 14) . At their baptism believers received this heavenly gift, but 
it continued as an active inspiration from Jesus Christ (Acts 10:44, 45; 
2 Cor. 3:17, 18). He is the great personal Power on whom in their 
weakness they throw themselves. Are they able to endure persecution? 
They know why (1 Peter 4:14). Is the darkness scattering before 
them? It is because the light is in the world (1 John 3:8; 4:13). 

3. In the fourth gospel this Spirit whom they receive from Jesus is 
called the Paraclete (John, chs. 14-16) : He is the Advocate or Support 
in whom He will return to them again. _ Acts starts forth the apostolic 
Church with Pentecost, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the 
brethren is regarded by them as a proof that the Messianic age has been 
inaugurated, and that power has been sent to them from their en- 
throned Lord (Acts 2:4, 16, 38). The active powers of the Spirit were 
all-sufficient evidence to them that His promise of visiting His people 
was fulfilled. Every display of energy was a token of the presence of 
the Spirit of God (Matt. 28:18-20; Luke 24:49). 

4. Such was one side of the power of that brotherhood, their 
miracles, their all-conquering gospel, their endurance. They never 
doubted what its source was, and its results were worthy of the origin. 
To-day no less than then man is under the control of spiritual powers, 
forces other than himself making for righteousness or for evil. All 
that is within our choice is to say whether we will entrust ourselves to 
the keeping of the Holy Spirit of God whose nature Jesus has inter- 
preted to the world. 

38 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 6: The Christian Character a New Creation 



First Day : The Bad Soil in which the Gospel was Sown 



i. No harder and at the same time more vital test can be put to any 
religion than to require it to bring into existence and perpetuate a new 
and exacting ethical life. Morality is the crown of our nature. Our 
conscience is the knowledge which we share with God, and to discover 
there some new chord responsive to diviner melodies, and to smite upon 
it till its clear note rises above and controls the earthly dissonance of 
human hearts, demands a master musician such as appeared with the 
rise of Christianity. This religion provided a supreme ideal of conduct, 
and at the same time wrought it out into the actual life of the world. It 
is called in the New Testament the fruit of the Holy Spirit of God 
(Matt. 7:16; John 15:16; Rom. 6:22, etc.). 

2. We may discern the vitality of the seed when we see the soil in 
which it grew. Tramped hard by materialism, the world as a whole was 
almost conscienceless ; there were great morasses of what seemed to be 
irreclaimable sensuality, and the best ground had run out with unsatis- 
fying philosophies and mysteries. "In no period had brute force more 
completely triumphed, in none was the thirst for material advantages 
more intense, in few was vice more ostentatiously glorified" (Lecky, 
"European Morals," I., 181). Are the words of 1 Peter 4:3, 4, too 
strong to describe the tone of Asia Minor, where Revelry was worshiped 
as a god, and religion was not only idolatry, but had disgusting prac- 
tices as an integral part of its ritual? 

3. We cannot wonder at the recurrent warnings in the First Epistle 
to the Corinthians, when we remember that the first object to attract 
the apostle's regard on his approach to Corinth was the temple of 
Aphrodite on the Acropolis, in which prostitutes served as priestesses 
(1 Cor. 5:1-13; 6:9-20; 7:8-10). And Rom. 1:18-32, awful as it is, is 
no worse than the indictment made by many writers of that age. Slavery 
had proved a curse, many of the slaves having brought the vilest ideas 
of the Orient into the homes of the Western world, which soon wrought 
havoc with the rather high moral tone of Rome during the Republic. 
Athens, too, had lost her earnestness. The provinces outstripped the 
capital in depravity. (See Lecky's "History of European Morals." 
Twelfth edition.) 

" On that hard, pagan world disgust 
And secret loathing fell. 
Deep weariness and sated lust 
Made human life a hell." 



39 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 
Study 6: The Christian Character a New Creation 



Second Day: A Yearning Among the Gentiles for 
Revelation 

i. The picture is dark enough. Is there then no light? There is, 
and however inferior the moral standard was as compared with our 
ideal, it was sufficient to rouse in many a protest against the hideousness 
of their great cities. From this class sprang a revival of religion, to- 
gether with attempts at reform. (See Hatch, pp. 139-141.) There was 
a widespread membership in clubs and religious guilds involving 
stringent morals. The age was in fact more religious than that which 
preceded it. Speculative thought had yielded to a practical philosophy 
which for a few was almost a religion. 

2. The Stoics were the finest of these schools of philosophy. Re- 
garding the present-world order as the best of all possible systems, the 
Stoic sought to follow nature in accordance with reason, yielding neither 
to irrational passion nor hoping for a future to remedy the defects of 
the present. In some of its best representatives Stoicism is suffused 
with a glow of emotion, while the pious resignation of Marcus Aurelius 
and the precepts of Epictetus to follow nature and to follow God, show 
that these men found in their philosophy what others enjoy in religion. 
But the average Stoic was an impassive sage, self-reliant and often un- 
touched by pity, who would perform every duty and face death, beyond 
which as a rule he had no outlook, not only with composure, but with a 
sense of relief. It need hardly be said that this cold and centripetal 
moral excellence never touched the life of the common man (Acts 17: 
18). 

3. The Epicurean school can show at this time no such noble ad- 
herents as the Stoics, and was followed chiefly by those who wished to 
provide themselves with a rationale for a life of indifference to public 
duty and for following passion. Epicureanism had become a filthy 
stream, befouling any life that it carried on its surface. 

4. The world wanted more than philosophy. Men were adrift on an 
ocean for which philosophy provided neither chart nor compass, and 
they hailed every craft from the East or elsewhere to give them tidings 
by revelation of another world in which they would fain believe. This 
the neo-Pythagorean philosopher claimed to satisfy. He taught that 
the soul was immortal, but that it must be freed by asceticism from the 
clogging flesh. Life was to be nobly lived in active virtue from a pure 
heart in the service of God and one's fellows. But the neo-Pythagorean 
conception of God was far below that of the Hebrew, and as a system 
apart from its influence on a few thinkers it was ineffectual, never lift- 
ing the heavy burden of life from off the masses of men. (See Sidg- 
wick's "History of Ethics"; Zeller's "Philosophic der Griechen," III., 2, 
137-141 ; Hatch, "Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Chris- 
tian Church," Lecture VI.) 

40 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 6: The Christian Character a New Creation 



Third Day : The Jew Prepares the World for the Gospel 

i. In considering the creation of the Christian ideal we must not 
forget that the backbone of the early Christian communities consisted 
of Jews and proselytes. An immense number of Jews were settled in 
the Roman Empire. Harnack estimates them at seven per cent of the 
urban population. Often eager to make proselytes the Jew had been 
successful in attaching to his mode of life a vast multitude of "God- 
fearers" who, while not submitting to his ritual, adopted his monotheism 
and morals (Acts 13 : 43 ; 16 : 14 ; 17:17; 18:7). It seems that the masses 
with their desires turned towards coarse Oriential or Egyptian super- 
stitions, but many of the finer spirits found satisfaction in Judaism, 
which may also have worked like leaven in many others and prepared 
the way for Christianity. 

2. Now, what had Judaism done for these proselytes and the "God- 
fearers" who waited in the courts of the synagogue? (a) It had touched 
a high ethical practice with religious emotion. The Jew was contented, 
it is true, with an average "wisdom," safe, but never heroic. He had, 
however, always before his eyes the fear of God and His command- 
ments, even if he had no burning passion for a pure and lofty ideal, nor 
would ever cast the present world and its chances from him for the 
sake of an absorbing spiritual venture. He was a religious Stoic, (b) 
Judaism also did something to create a moral conscience, preserving as 
it did a simplicity of heart and life and a rigorous ideal of purity for 
the individual and the home. 

3. But Judaism at its best could never become a world-wide religion. 
It was too exclusive. Even in the Western world which had rubbed 
off his sharpest angles the Jew was a disagreeably superior person. He 
looked askance at both the proselyte and the "God-fearer." Some 
highly educated men there were, like Philo, who taught the Stoic ideal 
of the brotherhood of men, but they were few and had no influence on 
the common Jew, who hated and was hated by the Gentile world. In 
fact, the Jewish feeling of superiority gave rise to the gravest problem 
of the early Church. Paul came forward with his free gospel, teaching 
that there was to be no privileged or exclusive caste in the brotherhood. 
So Christianity simply swept into itself multitudes who had, while wor- 
shiping with the Jews, been wistfully looking for a truer revelation of 
God. 



4i 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 
Study 6: The Christian Character a New Creation 



Fourth Day : The Gospel a Word of God to a Depraved 

World 

i. True on the whole as was the judgment of the Jew with regard to 
his superiority over his Gentile neighbor in intelligence and morality, 
the people were nevertheless depraved enough. Insincerity had eaten 
like a canker into their life. In Palestine there were the Pharisees. 
The Sadducaic spirit — materialistic, sensual, selfish — was also abroad. 
Magic and superstition accompanied by vice had made great inroads 
among the Jews of the Western Dispersion. Paul's judgment on the 
Jew in Rom. 2:1-29 is J ust , for his guilt was equally deep with that of 
the Gentile. 

2. The fact of importance is that the world as a whole was morally 
bankrupt. It had sought to revive its credit by taking stock in any re- 
ligion or philosophy which promoters might set before it. But this was 
part of the difficulty confronting Christianity. The ethical reserve of 
the world had been exhausted. A new character had to be created. The 
older religions had been immoral. Purity was not essential in their 
gods. It was the philosopher and the poet, not the priest, who preached 
the highest morality. Philosophy had sought to prove, and with success, 
that virtue is the truest reason, being inherent in the constitution of 
things. Knowledge, it is said, is virtue, but such knowledge is only 
within the reach of the wise man, so that it was doubtful whether the 
highest virtue was attainable even by the best mortals of this world. 

3. Does not our educated world to-day require to learn the truth of 
which men became, in those days, aware so painfully, that knowledge of 
virtue is not the solution of the problem of conduct? That age needed 
power and authority. It was an hungered for revelation ; it was ready 
for a religion that would come with "thus saith the Lord." And there 
can be no doubt that the early gospel was proclaimed in no hesitating 
manner. There was no lack of conviction in the preacher. This was 
part of the reason why he was believed, and when the world listened 
to his message 

" A conquering, new-born joy awoke, 
And filled her life with day." 

4. Christianity brought her message of authority just where it was 
needed. The gospel was preached first in cities which were as a rule 
more profligate than the country districts. It was planted in Antioch, 
glorying in her "Daphnic morals" ; in Corinth, whose name was current 
in a word denoting vice of the worst sort, and in Rome, the sink of the 
empire. Certainly the gospel did not refuse to challenge the god of this 
world in his strongholds. 



42 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 6: The Christian Character a New Creation 



Fifth Day : The Message of Israel as to Righteousness 

and Sin 



i. Why does Jesus say, "Salvation is of the Jews"? (John 4:22.) 
What advantage had the Jew in the history of religion? (Rom. 3: iff.) 
Within Israel God had revealed His character as nowhere else ; this peo- 
ple had enjoyed the richest endowment of spiritual life. So Christianity, 
which was to take up and carry to completion the best that God had 
made known concerning Himself, became the true successor to Israel, 
became in fact the real Israel. Not only Jesus but His apostles recog- 
nize that He came to fulfill the past, to bring to perfection truths that 
were adumbrated in the law and the prophets (Matt. 5:17; Heb. 1:1). 

2. What was the message of Israel to the world? (Mark 12:28-31.) 
God is an ethical Person, but He is also the one almighty Creator of 
heaven and of earth. His will is absolute, and it is also perfect in 
righteousness. Thus the divine will becomes the law of righteousness 
for men. The divine will had been embodied in the divine law as it is 
set forth in the Old Testament, and it served as a noble moral dis- 
cipline for those who lived under it, eliciting from the finest spirits their 
strong devotion to its observance. This was quite a different position 
from that of the Greeks, who regarded virtue as a matter of universal 
reason shared by gods and men alike. According to the Hebrew ideal 
of conduct virtue is righteousness, obedience to the will of a holy God. 

3. Further the elaborate ritual # of worship served to inspire the 
Israelite with reverence for the inviolate purity of his God, which was 
to be reflected also in his civil and personal life. The people of Jehovah 
must be clean in heart, soul, and body. Even Isaiah is a man of un- 
clean lips (Isa. 6). But the holiness of Jehovah is not only ritual in its 
nature, it is moral. This introduced a conception which was in large 
measure foreign to the world outside of Judaism. There is none good 
but one, that is God (Mark 10:18), for all have disobeyed God's law 
(Rom. 3:9-18). Sinjs thus lawlessness (1 John 3:4), it is a transgres- 
sion of the limits which God has appointed as right conduct (Rom. 5: 
13, 14). Sin is not merely shortcoming in reaching forth to an ideal, 
nor a flaw in our progress which we shall outgrow, nor a disease, nor 
defective knowledge. All moral evil is sin ; it is trespass against a holy 
God. 



43 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 6: The Christian Character a New Creation 



Sixth Day: Love of a Father's Will which is Truth 
Displaces Fear 



i. Christianity had a splendid ground in the Old Testament religion 
on which to build, but there was much accumulated rubbish to be cleared 
away before it got down to the real conscience of the common people, 
overlaid as it had been by the instruction of the scribes. The law had 
become so encrusted with traditional enactments that its original mean- 
ing was forgotten, and the whole system had to be punctiliously observed 
under pain of Divine displeasure. Righteousness was to the average 
Pharisee obedience to an outward code, to a letter that killed (2 Cor. 3 : 
6ff.). 

2. As a result of this view of righteousness fear played a large part 
as a motive for obedience, and some of the finer religious feelings, such 
as gratitude and love, which pulse through the prophetic books of the 
Old Testament, are but faintly apparent in the works of the Pharisees. 
The Pharisee did not love his God. He stood in awe of Him as a task- 
master. Ancient ethics generally shared with later Judaism this con- 
ception of fear as the ruling factor in determining the relation of man 
to God. (See Wundt's Ethics.) 

3. But Christianity changed all that. Jesus taught that God is a 
Father. He loves His children, and they should love Him. God so 
loved the world as to give His best (John 3 : 16) ; indeed all our love 
springs from God's nature (1 John 4:19). Morality ceases to be an 
external code, lifeless and terrorizing. It is the expression of a holy 
and loving will (1 Peter 1:15-17). The holiness and goodness of the 
Divine nature are erected into a standard for life, which both in its 
completeness and its power drives from the field all competing ideals. 
Truth is no longer merely an intellectual conception, but the practical 
essence of life ; it is the will of a Holy Father who loves us, and obedi- 
ence to this will becomes the truth for the believer (John 8:32; 14:6; 
James 1 : 18). 

4. Love now displaces fear as a motive in religion (Rom. 8:31-39; 
1 John 3:19-22; 4:17-19). The revelation of the divine nature as the 
Holy Father makes His commands for us no irksome precepts, to be 
obeyed because we are compelled by alarm at the consequences of dis- 
obedience, but we become eager in seeking what the will of God for us 
is (1 John 4:7-12; 5:3, 4). 



44 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 6: The Christian Character a New Creation 



Seventh Day: Forgiveness of Sins and Faith at the 
Root of Christian Character 



i. Moreover, the Christian teaching went far beyond Judaism in 
the meaning it gave to sin. The holier and more loving God the Father 
is, the more awful is disobedience to His will. So we come upon an- 
other fundamental doctrine in the Christian life, that of forgiveness of 
sins. It lay at the basis of the new ethics. All men are sinful and sin 
brings death, but the gospel message was that though God hates sin He 
has not averted His face from the sinner, but forgives his sin. This is 
Divine "grace." Never before had the world understood as it did in 
the apostolic age the mercy of God in pardoning sinful man (Mark 2: 
10). It was the great promise of the new covenant of the Messianic 
era (Jer. 31:33, 34; cf. Matt. 26:28). 

2. The condition of forgiveness, however, was faith (Acts 13:38, 39). 
Faith in its simplest idea is trust. He who believes trusts in the mercy 
of God, places himself entirely in His keeping, and opens his whole na- 
ture to receive from God whatever gracious influence His Spirit may 
impart. There is no pride, self-sufficiency, nor self-reliance in faith. It 
recognizes the helplessness of the natural man and flings its whole bur- 
den in obedience upon the love of God (Gal. 2:20, 21; Heb. 11 : 1, 6; 
1 John 5:4). Here there was a great gulf fixed between Judaism and 
Christianity. The Jewish religion was ruled by the conception of law 
— "thou shalt," "thou shalt not." But this legalism proved to be a tragic 
failure, for it crucified the sinless One, and Paul, perhaps its greatest 
disciple, has left a terrible indictment of the system. There was never a 
law that could give life. It simply showed man his helplessness (Gal. 
2:i5ff. ; 3:21-26; Rom. 7:7-end). 

3. Thus Christian ethics has an inwardness which no other system 
ever possessed. Morals issue from a new life created within man's 
heart by the Spirit of God. Life becomes a very much profounder con- 
ception. It is not bounded by the present seen world, nor by man's in- 
herent ethical capacity or spiritual endowment. It is the perfection of 
manhood begotten anew by the Spirit of God which shows itself in vir- 
tues of conduct (2 Cor. 5:17; James 1 : 18 ; 1 Peter 1 : 23 ; Gal. 5 : 22, 23) . 
God grants this gift of life to faith. Faith lays hold of a living Person, 
Jesus Christ the Revealer of the Father, and the Christian character is 
the result. 



45 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 7: The Ethical Ideal of the New Character 



First Day : How was the Will of God Known ? 

1. Since the new Christian character springs from a new life we must 
next consider the form in which this life expressed itself. Funda- 
mentally it was a fulfillment of the will of God, for this is righteous- 
ness (Mark 3 : 35 ; Rom. 12 : 2 ; Eph. 6:6; Col. 4 : 12 ; Heb. 10 : 36 ; 1 John 
2:17). But how was the believer to discover the will of God? Was 
there any standard of that will to which the individual should conform? 

2. This will was made known to them in a variety of ways. There 
was the Divine Spirit which dwelt within the heart and guided the be- 
liever in the way of God (Phil. 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2; 4:14; James 4:6; 
John 14:17; 16:13). But this Spirit wrought through various agencies 
suggesting the will of God. There was the preaching of the gospel 
(Rom. 10:14, 15), for the Word of God itself was living, and appealed 
to the heart (Heb. 4:12). The Spirit was also a power within the apos- 
tles and prophets whose teaching and counsel directed the course of the 
brotherhood (1 Cor. 2:16). Further, each individual had his own hard 
or joyous discipline in which he could discover the will of God. No one 
would conform to any other, God having a purpose for each (Rom. 8: 
26, 27 \ James 1:2; 1 Peter 1:6, 7). 

3. But unquestionably the form and substance in which the Spirit 
found chief expression was the life of Jesus Christ. He gave moment 
to the Word of God, to the preaching and counsel of the apostles, and 
to the private discipline of each one's soul. He stood before them as the 
great Exemplar of character. Did Jesus offer Himself to be a Guide 
unto life? (See Mark 8:34!; Matt. 28:18-20.) Why did He call 
men to Him? (Matt. 11 : 27-30.) He was a teacher who could not only 
tell them the will of God, but One who embodied it in Himself (Luke 
22:42-45). It was also the view of the apostolic Church that Jesus had 
fulfilled the will of God in every respect, and that on this account He 
was the standard to which humanity shall be conformed (John 6:38;. 
Eph. 4: 13; Heb. 2:9-11 ; 10:9). 



46 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 7: The Ethical Ideal of the New Character 



Second Day: Jesus Christ the Perfect Exemplar 



1. Whatever exalted conceptions the early brethren entertained of the 
Person of the Messiah, they never forgot that He had lived a truly hu- 
man life on earth (1 John 4:2, 3). This fact prevented them from be- 
coming mystics with an ideal floating in cloudland. They remained 
disciples of Jesus of Nazareth. No more proof can be required for this 
than that so large a part of the New Testament is devoted to the record 
of the earthly life of Jesus. Though the gospels were later in origin 
than the most of the epistles, they became the first authoritative 
part of the canon. The life of Jesus is also assumed to be known 
to the readers of the epistles. It is probable that the ideal of the earthly 
Jesus as presented to the average Christian was of the type which we 
have in the synoptic gospels, for the fourth gospel did not enter into the 
general stream of the Church life till after the others had been widely 
circulated for some years. 

2. But it is difficult to determine how far the earthly life of Jesus 
supplied the example for the daily duties of the Christian. He stood 
at the beginning of their history, of course, as the most perfect con- 
ceivable character, but His problems were different from theirs, and they 
could not slavishly copy His actions. It was His mind which they de- 
sired to possess. They became His true followers through His Spirit 
(Phil. 2:5, 12, 13). He was also the "Prince Leader in the faith" (Heb. 
12:2). Undoubtedly much of His instruction on matters of conduct 
was remembered, but it is, as we shall see, surprising how little of this 
consisted of detailed precepts. He had given principles. His words 
were deep, so that no follower could understand them by parrot-like 
repetition, but worked out his own salvation by discovering in life their 
import. The Sermon on the Mount was no new external code of ethics, 
and most of His discussions with His opponents, and His parables were 
illustrative of the right attitude of man to God and to his fellows, and 
suggestive of its application. If the law is the will of God, what is the 
pith of it? (Matt. 22:35-40.) 



47 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 
Study 7: The Ethical Ideal of the New Character 



Third Day: Obedience to the Will of God in Christ 
Brings True Freedom 

1. Jesus is regarded by the various writers from different points of 
view. To the author of James He is the Messiah who gave sanction to 
the royal law of the new kingdom. This law is a law of liberty under 
which the fruits of divine wisdom throve (James 1 : 25 ; 2:8, 12 ; 3:17, 
18). Jesus stands forth in Hebrews as One who by His endurance of 
the sufferings of a thoroughly human life became the first who at- 
tained to perfect faith, and the ideal of the believer's effort (Heb. 2 : 17, 
18; 12:2, 3). In First Peter, Christ is the Example (2:21). According 
to John believers obey the commands of Christ which are summed up in 
love, itself a reproduction of His own character, the fount of love 
(1 John 3:24; 4:7-17). 

2. It is often said with truth that Paul had a relatively small interest 
in the historical Jesus, because he only knew Him as the risen Christ. 
(See, however, the conception of His character in Rom. 5:19; 2 Cor. 5: 
21; Phil. 2:5-11; 2 Cor. 8:9.) Also a word of Jesus is final (1 Cor. 7: 
10; 9:14; 1 Cor. 11:23). Reminiscences of His teaching may be found 
perhaps in Rom. 12:14, 17; 16:19; 1 Cor. 13:2; 1 Thess. 5:2; 2 Thess. 
3:3. But he laid more stress upon the character and person of Jesus 
than on the details of His earthly life. Christ was for him a present 
living Person, yet One who had lived on earth, and whose character had 
a very definite ethical content, which was to be reproduced in the be- 
liever (Eph. 4:20-24). 

3. Jesus Christ thus bodied forth the will of God. And to have this 
will wrought into actual conduct was to be sanctified (1 Thess. 4:3; Heb. 
12:14). The comprehensiveness of this sanctification finds its best ex- 
pression in Rom. 12 : 1, 2. But is the will of God so very simple, or do 
we require trained spiritual faculties to discern it? (Heb. 5:14.) The 
first step in this process of sanctification is to obey whatever is known 
of God's will (2 Cor. 10:5; Heb. 3:12; 4:1; 5:9; 1 Peter 4:17; 1 John 
5:2, 3). 

4. Along with obedience goes Christian freedom (Gal. 5:13). No 
life is like any other. Each has its own character, therefore liberty 
must be granted to each to fulfill the will of God as the Spirit may 
guide. Paul met much opposition in preaching freedom from an ex- 
ternal legalism, the Jewish Christian holding that this was merely to 
court license. How could ignorant Gentiles be educated into decency 
without a law? (Rom. 6:i2-end.) He substitutes a Person as the 
embodiment of the Divine will (Gal. 3:1-5). Strange as it may appear 
they attained freedom when they became slaves of Christ. For He 
being the supreme Person must be the final authority, and to acknowl- 
edge Him brings true liberty. 

48 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 
Study 7: The Ethical Ideal of the New Character 



Fourth Day : Love the New and Best Fruit of the Spirit 

1. To learn Christ is to put off the old life, whether the ingrained 
evil habitude of the Gentiles (1 Peter 1:18; 4:2, 3), or the accumulated 
prejudices and vices of the Jews — both of which are in essence the 
friendship of the world. The world is opposed to the will of God, and 
the Christian must renounce the worldly mind (Matt. 16:23). The 
mind of Christ, however, manifests itself in a unique character, the vir- 
tues of which were a new ethical creation of extraordinary richness. 
Though they are common to all the writings of the New Testament, it is 
in the epistles of Paul that they are most fully described. The will of 
God for men is partially expressed in what Paul calls "the fruit of the 
Spirit" (Gal. 5:22, 23; Eph. 5:9). Some of these graces are as follows. 

2. Love. This is the supreme virtue of Christianity (1 Cor. 13:13). 
It is a new word (aydtrri) for a new virtue. It does not occur in clas- 
sical Greek, and no less remarkable, the common classical word for 
the love of passion (Jpcos) is not found in the New Testament. Love 
is a motive power of surpassing efficacy in the realm of conduct, and is 
in itself sufficient to distinguish Christian ethics radically from pagan 
or even Jewish teaching. God is the source of love (1 John 4:7, 8, 16, 
19), and by His Spirit it is shed upon our hearts (Rom. 5:5). It is a 
new virtue because it springs from the fact of redemption. Never until 
Christ came was the depth of the Father's love made known to the 
world (John 13:34; 15:12; 1 John 2:7, 8). 

3. Love is a virtue of the whole man — of the mind because it is in- 
tellectual and spiritual (Phil. 4:8; 1 Cor. 13:6) [There was a fine old 
Greek virtue — aldibs regard for the sanctity of the divine — which was 
akin to this intellectual element in Christian love.] — of the will because it 
was a source of unwearied effort on behalf of all, even one's enemies 
(Matt. 5:44; 18:21; 1 Cor. 13:6, 7; Heb. 10:24; Gal. 6:10) — and it is 
burdened with the purest emotion (Rom. 8:35-39; James 2:5; 1 Peter 
1:8; 1 John 4:18). 

4. There is an immense vocabulary of words denoting the qualities 
of a lovable disposition. It cannot indeed be claimed that goodness of 
heart was a new virtue, for there was at this time a rising feeling of 
sympathy for those under suffering, and there are intimations of hu- 
manity even in classical authors, not a little human kindliness, and a re- 
gard for the morally heroic. _ (See Butcher, p. 76.) But the Greeks had 
not much more than a fine instinct, often overborne by selfishness, and 
"the utmost point that this development reached fell considerably short 
of the standard of Christian charity" (Sidgwick, p. no). In the Chris- 
tian, however, the heart is mellowed by the love of God into a goodness 
that must find liberal expression. 



49 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 7: The Ethical Ideal of the New Character 



Fifth Day: Goodness, Beneficence, Longsuffering, 
Patience 



1. Goodness and Beneficence. These two beautiful words, the latter 
of which dyaduavvr] is a coinage of the Christian spirit, are expres- 
sions of Christian love and a great enrichment of morals. They signify- 
that goodness of heart wherein man is most like unto God (Rom. 15: 
14; Eph. 5:9; 2 Thess. 1:11). Christ was preeminently "good" (Acts 
10:38; 1 Peter 2:3). So the Christian has a liberal, generous soul, and 
can afford to be lavish of goodness to others because of the boundless 
grace he has experienced from God in Christ (Rom. 12:8; 2 Cor. 9: 
11; Heb. 6:10; 1 John 3:16, 17). This goodness took on a great many 
different forms. Its possessor was open-hearted and open-handed, and, 
though no ascetic, gladly gave his worldly goods to his brethren. (See 
the ideal of the early Church in Acts 2:44-46.) Is it correct to call this 
communism? When Christian goodness was directed towards the breth- 
ren it was termed "love of the brethren" (<pi\a8e\<t>La), all sons of a 
heavenly Father (1 Thess. 4:9; Heb. 13:1; 1 Peter 1:22). This vir- 
tue gets expression also in "hospitality" (Heb. 13:1; 3 John; Rev. 2: 
19), and in "compassion" (1 Peter 3:8; Heb. 10:33, 34; James 2:14-16). 
Love abhors evil, cleaves to the good and overcomes evil with good 
(Rom. i2:9ff.). 

2. While love is the most comprehensive of the Christian virtues, 
it is probable that longsuffering is equally characteristic. Patience is 
very nearly related to longsuffering. The former is steadfastness 
under suffering, perseverance in a course of action, especially the con- 
tinuance of unflagging zeal in distressful circumstances (James 5:7-11; 
Heb. 6:12). Longsuffering usually carries with it the idea of forbear- 
ance. The Christian shall not return evil for evil, and is slow to avenge 
a personal wrong, the supreme motive and example being found in 
the life of his Master (Rom. 12:17-21; 1 Peter 3:9-18). 

3. Is it correct to say that in the Christian ideal a passive patience 
and endurance were substituted for the old pagan virtue of courage, 
and that in this respect Christian morals were deficient? "In this noble 
word patience {virouovf)) there always appears in the New Testa- 
ment a background of courage (avdpda) .... It is the brave patience 
with which the Christian contends against the various hindrances, perse- 
cutions and temptations that befall him in his conflict with the inward 
and outward world" (Ellicott). 



50 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 7: The Ethical Ideal of the New Character 



Sixth Day: Gentleness, Meekness, Humility, Fidelity, 
Self-Restraint 



1. Gentleness, meekness, humility, are germane to longsuffering. 
Jesus was "meek and lowly in heart." This is also a distinctively Chris- 
tian virtue, though the Greeks had a kindred conception in the fine word, 
"equity" (i-meiKeia) "sweet reasonableness," which came into the Chris- 
tian vocabulary unstained by debasing associations, and with the best 
traditions of pagan morals (Acts 24:4; 2 Cor. 10:1; Phil. 4:5; James 
3:i7). 

2. Gentleness was indeed not unknown among the heathen moralists, 
but it was held in low esteem by Aristotle, whose ideal was the high- 
minded man, he who in his pride of heart deems himself worthy of 
great things, because he actually is worthy. "The Greek ideal of the 
perfect gentleman (6 Ka\oKayad6s) has in it a touch of aristocratic senti- 
ment; it was well fitted for the favored few, for the gifted, for the 
noble, for the strong; but it left out of account the disinherited, the 
fallen, the feeble of the earth" (Butcher, p. 75). The word which in 
the New Testament is translated humble (raireivhs) meant to the Greek 
what was abject and servile. 

3. Jesus made the meek spirit a premier virtue (Matt. 5:5; 11:29). 
He called the poor and the humble into His kingdom, all those who 
in spite of worldly oppression and adverse conditions were cherishing 
the hope that some day they would be able to worship God in true right- 
eousness and holiness without^ f ear (Luke 1:74, 75 ). Meekness is no 
natural disposition, but is an inwrought grace of the heart (Rom. 12: 
3; 1 Peter 3:4, 5). It is based on a true knowledge of self as it ap- 
pears when the spotless purity of Christ's life is flashed upon us. 
"Meekness represses the claim of personal merit because even in the 
saint there is a continual sense of imperfection, so that he must rely ut- 
terly on a strength that is not his own" (Sidgwick, "Ethics," p. 122). 

4. Other virtues such as trustworthiness (1 Cor. 4:2; Col. 1:2; 
Luke I2:42ff.) and self-restraint (1 Peter 1:13; 4:7; 1 Tim. 2:9; 
Titus 2 : 12) were well known to the pagans, but became intensified, the 
one by growing into loyalty to Christ, the other through the mastery of 
a new_ Spirit controlling the Christian against a false freedom in thought 
or action. 



5i 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 7: The Ethical Ideal of the New Character 



Seventh Day : The New Conscience of the World 



1. It is obvious that several of the terms which we have considered 
were current in contemporary language. They may have been familiar 
to Paul because he was educated in Tarsus, one of the centers of Stoical 
philosophy. But they do not all owe their introduction to him, for the 
conceptions occur throughout the New Testament. Christianity, how- 
ever, gathered them up together with the four cardinal Greek virtues, 
courage, self-restraint, prudence, and justice, mellowing here, transform- 
ing there by the subtle alchemy of faith and love, and made them in- 
gredients among other richer virtues of its own creation in the new con- 
science of the world. "That crowning triumph of ethical nomenclature, 
conscience (a-vveidrjtn.s)," gets new contents and sanction when Christ 
Himself in His Spirit becomes a conscience to the believer (Acts 24: 
16 ; Rom. 2:15; Heb. 10 : 22 ; 1 Peter 2 : 19) . 

2. But not less remarkable is the omission from the New Testament 
of one of the leading terms of Greek ethics. The word happiness 
(evbaiixovla) does not occur in the New Testament, even in the noble 
conception given it by Aristotle (Eth. Nic. x., 7), though it figures in 
almost every moralist as the chief pursuit of life, and that not only in 
the form of Stoical apathy or Epicurean pleasure. Selfishness in any 
aspect, even "self-realization" as the aim of the merely natural man, is 
antagonistic to the spirit of the gospel. Seek first the Kingdom of God 
and His righteousness (Rom. 12:1, 2). 

3. One or two remarks as to the ethical ideal of the New Testament, 
(a) The wonderfully rich and varied nomenclature shows that a creative 
power was at work, ramifying far and wide in our complex moral na- 
ture, and getting expression from every source for a very full standard 
of conduct, (b) The catalogues of vices illustrate the nature of the 
awful forces the new religion had to face, and how closely the morals 
of the world were studied (1 Cor. 5 : iof. ; Gal. 5:19; Rom. 1:296*. : 
1 Peter 4:3; James and Revelation passim), (c) It was positive, includ- 
ing duty to God, man and one's self (Titus 2: 12), a life complete because 
in the Kingdom of God. Christianity was not ascetism, nor the renun- 
ciation of the world alone, (d) It was not a system of sporadic virtues, 
nor an ineffective dream like Stoicism. It professed to be fruit from a 
new principle of life created within the heart by the Spirit of God in 
Christ. (On this study see Newman Smyth's "Christian Ethics"; E. v. 
Dobschiitz's, "The Churches of Primitive Christendom" — soon to be 
translated.) 



52 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 8: The Christian Ideal of Domestic Life 



First Day: The Evil Condition of Home Life Among 
Romans and Greeks 



i. Our home and our intercourse with immediate friends supply the 
amplest opportunity for the discipline of character. In our conduct 
towards those with whom we share the intimacies of life three-fourths 
of the web of destiny are woven. It is a perversion of judgment against 
which reason often protests to assign rank to manhood according to 
public performance alone. The region of the commonplace is the bat- 
tlefield of character; and of this region the home forms the largest por- 
tion in most lives. Wherefore we desire to put the Christian ideal, 
which has just been outlined, to the searching test of how it was wrought 
out in simple everyday life. 

2. The contemporary world seemed to have lost its power of protect- 
ing human love from impurity. In spite of the favorable opinion of 
Dr. Hatch that "there was in ancient Rome, as there is in modern Lon- 
don, a preponderating mass of those who loved their children and their 
homes, who were good neighbors and faithful friends, who conscien- 
tiously discharged their civil duties, and were in all the current senses 
of the word 'moral'" ("Greek Ideas," etc., 139, 140), there are only too 
strong grounds for holding that both in the Roman and the Greek 
world the home life was degraded. There were of course frequent ex- 
amples of conjugal felicity (how awful must it have been otherwise!), 
but a flood of immorality from the East and from the provinces swept 
over Italy during the later Republic. Selfishness led to celibacy, many 
of the finer spirits espoused ascetism, and the emperor introduced legis- 
lation to encourage marriage, lest the empire should become childless. 

3. Greece even in the days of her intellectual preeminence had been 
in worse case than Rome. The wife was not the equal of her husband, 
and he, if a man of education, would consort with brilliant courtesans 
known as hetcerce, who were accorded an admiration which it is im- 
possible for us to conceive. "We must face the fact that the very period 
which is renowned in Greek literature and art as that of greatest splen- 
dor was a time also of moral rottenness." (Bliimner, "Home Life of 
Ancient Greeks," ch. iv. ; Lecky, "European Morals," ch. v.) Instead 
of improving as the years went by, the life of Asia Minor and Greece 
had lost its restraint, and was quite depraved when the gospel was first 
preached. 



53 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 8: The Christian Ideal of Domestic Life 



Second Day : The Purity of the Jewish Home Inherited 
by Christianity 



i. In contrast to the heathen world the Hebrew had an almost ideal 
home life. In the Old Testament ascetism has no place, virginity is no 
virtue, and the family is a token of God's blessing (Ps. 127). Rever- 
ence of parents by the children is not only enjoined in the t)ecalogue, 
but has a blessing attached (Ex. 20:12). On the whole these traits 
are preserved in later Judaism, which exalted purity, and encouraged 
education ; and no finer pictures of the gracious and peaceful homes 
of "the poor" can be found than those in Luke 1 and 2. Some Jewish 
doctors of the law, it is true, allowed divorce for trifling cause, but there 
were equally influential teachers who were strict, and whose judgment 
would be accepted by the average Jew. (See Matt. 19:3ft".) 

2. But Judaism had no great influence in this respect upon the morals 
of the empire. Indeed the Jew felt that his own safety consisted in 
avoiding the pollutions of the heathen world, and we cannot be surprised 
that not only were marriages with unbelievers forbidden, but also that 
it was a condition that a proselyte to Judaism should on his conversion 
be separated from the unbelieving partner, lest the heathen influences of 
the home should prove too much for the purer life of the synagogue. 

3. Christianity thus started with a fine tradition concerning mar- 
riage. Its followers brought with them a noble austerity in regard to 
personal purity and the sacredness of the home. Indeed it began as a 
house religion. The brotherhood was a large family which was protected 
by love against invasion by the spirit of the world. As a rule the or- 
dinary homes were not broken up, for it was only the few whom Jesus 
asked to renounce these in order to follow Him (Luke 14:26). Hus- 
bands and wives, parents and children still loved one another. The 
husband who returned from the love feast would reverence his wife 
with a gentler chastity, and cherish his child with a diviner affection. 
It is probable indeed that the worth of marriage was affected by the 
conditions of that age. Since there was need to proclaim the gospel 
with all haste to a perishing world, many had to forsake their settled 
homes (Matt. 19:12), and the expectation that Jesus would soon re- 
turn also had its influence (1 Cor. 7:26-35). 



54 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 

Study 8: The Christian Ideal of Domestic Life 



Third Day : The Christian Conception of Marriage 



i. In harmony with the teaching of Jesus who invested the marriage 
relation with religious sanction (Mark 10:6-12), Paul ennobles it by 
the highest possible comparison. It becomes the type of the union be- 
tween Christ and the Church. Thus marriage is at once consecrated by 
religion, and natural affection is thereby enriched as with the mellow- 
ness and color of ripened fruit (Eph. 5:22-33). Husband and wife are 
fellow heirs of life. Therefore their home must be pervaded by the 
spirit of prayer, and their days should be spent in good works and the 
practice of their faith (1 Peter 3:7). 

2. Family duties are outlined especially for those readers whose 
Gentile antecedents had provided no strong foundation on which to 
build a good home. A chaste and reverent love is enjoined on the hus- 
band towards his wife, because she is a part of himself. His duties 
are kindly consideration, nay, honor, just because though they are equal 
in the sight of God she needs his help and protection (Eph. 5:25, 28; 
1 Peter 3:7). Of the woman respectful submission is required, proba- 
bly a necessary injunction because through reaction from former re- 
pression she might be in danger of abusing her liberty (Eph. 5:22, 23; 
1 Peter 3 : 1-6) . Modesty in mien and attire, a life full of restraint, and 
graced by good works are becoming in a mother of the true Israel 
(1 Tim. .2:9-12). 

3. "In Paul's teaching we have all the elements of the perception 
that the unique union of marriage was also the birthplace of an unprece- 
dented and incomparable ethical culture, and precisely in the form of a 
union in the faith was to attain its highest development." (Weizsacker, 
"Apostolic Age," II., p. 390.) 

4. Much difficulty was occasioned by the mixed marriages of Chris- 
tians and unbelievers. It is dealt with in 1 Cor. 7:12-14. Here the 
Christian ideal moves on a higher plane than the Jewish. The Jew 
said to the proselyte, Leave your unbelieving partner and escape pollu- 
tion. The Christian, secure in the power of the gospel, says, Overcome 
the world by living with your partner, wherever that is agreeable to 
both, in order that the sanctifying influences of the Divine Spirit work- 
ing in the Christian life may soften the other's heart. Thus in mar- 
riage the creative power of the new religion was manifested. Its very 
sacredness and inviolability makes it a lever for propagating the faith. 
Christianity was not helpless in the face of the impurity of the world. 
It proposed to conquer the world even in the home. 



55 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 
Study 8: The Christian Ideal of Domestic Life 



Fourth Day: The Child; Purity; Chivalry; Woman's 

Dignity 

i. In another respect Jewish practice had been a constant rebuke to 
the heathen world — its abhorrence of infanticide or the exposure of 
children. In spite of strong sentiment against it and severe repressive 
legislation, the practice was frightfully common. Christianity again 
deepened the sacredness of life. The child becomes the figure of the 
spirit to which the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven stand open (Mark 
10:14, I5> 16; 1 Cor. 7:14; Eph. 6:4). From the new religion there 
issued a flood of sympathy, and the cry of the children entered into the 
ears of the brotherhood of love, who soon organized a system of relief 
for orphans and the destitute. The principle is found in James 1:27. 
(See Lecky, II., ch. iv.) 

2. No less characteristic of the Christian ideal is the standard of 
individual purity which is consistently held forth in every part of the 
New Testament. The laxity of morals made the progress of the new 
religion particularly difficult, and the epistles afford abundant evidence 
that one of the most frequent trials of the brethren was found in the 
reversions of their fellow believers to Gentile sensuality (1 Thess. 4:1-8; 
1 Cor. 5:6, 7; 10:1-13; 1 Peter 2:11, 12; 4:1-6; Rev. 2:14, 15, 20, 21). 
But the gospel was effective and a new sense of chastity was wrought 
out in these Christian circles. 

3. Woman was also raised to a new dignity by the place assigned her 
in the church. Jesus Himself had set the example of gracious courtesy 
(John 4:27; Luke 7:36-end; 10:38-41), and this was soon displayed 
by his followers in a fine chivalry towards women. This was all the 
more remarkable because the position of woman in the Greek world, 
and the former life of degradation from which many of the Chris- 
tians had been rescued, afforded many delicate problems in respect 
to her function and worth in the life of the Church (1 Cor. 7:8; 11: 
3-6; 14:34ft-). 

4. And woman responded gladly to a gospel which offered her so 
much. Large numbers flocked into the church. Not only in the prov- 
ince of Macedonia, where the sex had long enjoyed higher privileges 
than elsewhere, are there honorable women not a few (Acts 16:14; 
Phil. 4: 2), but possibly in Colossae a wealthy matron provided the church 
with a home (Col. 4:15). For others see Rom. 16:1, 3, especially that 
extraordinary woman Priscilla, who did not preside over a house-church, 
but was a missionary, and even taught the cultured Apollos (Acts 18: 
26). Numbers of the most ardent propagandists of the cross and of 
its most enduring martyrs were women, and this continued to be the 
case, very many of them Gentile by birth, often indeed drawn from 
the imperial society (See Harnack's "Ausbreitung des Christenthums," 
P- 398.) 

56 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 8: The Christian Ideal of Domestic Life 



Fifth Day: Slavery in the Pagan World 



i. There can be no doubt that slavery had proved a great curse to 
the ancient world. In the Greek cities especially slaves formed a large 
factor in the population, and they were dragged in multitudes at the 
heels of the Roman conquerors of the later republic and earlier empire 
as they returned home. Throughout Italy and the provinces country 
estates were worked by gangs of slaves whose absentee masters gave no 
heed to their hapless condition, so woe-begone that, as Mommsen 
says, in comparison with them, "it is quite possible that the sum of all 
negro sufferings is but a drop." The state of matters in the city was 
better; "The bookkeeper, the merchant's clerk, the reader, and private 
secretary of the man of position, his agent, the tutor of his children, 
his family physician, the actor, and the prima donna were not engaged, 
but bought" (Zahn). Slave service was essential to the life of culture 
which the wealthier classes enjoyed. Slaves lived to do the pleasure of 
their masters. It would not be just to judge of the average condition 
of the slave by the frightful stories of outrage perpetrated on the slaves 
by monsters of cruelty, for frequently the relations were of the most 
kindly sort. But the slave remained the absolute property of one who 
could dispose of him at will, and where there was nothing but a natural 
kindliness to restrain caprice, the coarseness of the age led to an excess 
of brutality rather than of humanity. Accustomed to hear the saying, 
"As many enemies as there are slaves," the average Roman would ask, 
Is he a person or a chattel ? What was there left to one who was forbid- 
den the rights of married life, of citizenship, of public recognition, in- 
deed of anything he could call his own? While it is impossible to 
estimate exactly the slave population, it is probably below the mark 
to put down that of the city of Rome at three hundred thousand. Many 
of them were depraved Orientals, and coming in like a flood they intro- 
duced vicious ideas and practices, undermined the purity of the home and 
corrupted public morals. 

But there was a wave of humanity spreading over that world. Epic- 
tetus, the greatest of Roman moralists, was once a slave ; the Stoics ex- 
erted a wide influence for good, and Seneca writes : "He is a slave, 
you say. Yet perchance he is free in spirit. He is a slave. Will this 
harm him? Show me who is not. _ One is a slave to lust, another to 
avarice, a third to ambition, all alike to fear." (See Lecky, I., 262; 
Dobschiitz, "Die urchristlichen Gemeinden," Appendix.) 



57 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 8: The Christian Ideal of Domestic Life 



Sixth Day: Christianity's Advance Towards the 
Solution of the Problem of Slavery 



i. The Stoics did much to ameliorate the condition of the slave by 
diffusing kindlier sentiments and in particular by their influence on in- 
dividual masters ; but they were primarily philosophers, their teaching 
was largely theoretic, and "there was an intellectual one-sidedness and 
false pathos for the woes of the time" (Heinrici). 

2. Judaism held an incomparably higher position in this matter. In 
the Old Testament slaves were part of the family, for whom as for his 
children the head of the house was responsible. They shared the re- 
ligion of Israel and were treated as human beings. But Judaism had 
always remained more or less isolated, and it seems to have drawn but 
few of its proselytes from the slave ranks. Humane as the Jews were 
they made no definite contribution to the slave question after the close 
of the Old Testament. 

3. Wherein did Christianity make an effective contribution to this 
awful problem? The apostles introduce no new theory as to slavery, 
for they seem to have gone out into the world with the Jewish ideal, 
but they do initiate a marvelously original and bold practice. While 
philosophers dreamed the Christians accepted slaves as brethren, and 
they became new men. Whether or not he was a "person" on earth, the 
slave was a citizen of the eternal Kingdom of God, and there and then 
"he was ushered into a fellowship of love, which was no theory, but a 
social fact of tremendous ethical power. The religious basis for this is 
given in Gal 3:28. Where in all literature is there a more charming 
picture than the letter of Paul to Philemon? The believing slave be- 
comes a member of a Christian home and is treated as children are, 
while the unbelieving slave rests upon the heart of his master as a life 
to be won for his Lord. What a change has passed upon that society 
when master and slave sit round a common table, unite their prayers, 
and greet one another with a kiss of love. Is it possible to discover 
anywhere a finer delicacy than is attested by the absence of all reference 
to servitude from the multitudes of inscriptions in the Roman cata- 
combs, though the Church was reproached with having become a refuge 
for the poor and the slaves ? 



58 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 8: The Christian Ideal of Domestic Life 



Seventh Day : Slavery and Work 

i. To sum up the attitude of Christianity to slavery. It was no less 
remarkable in what it omitted than in what it enjoined, (i) Slavery 
is accepted as a public institution, and the Christian slave must submit 
to his lot (i Cor. 7:20-24; 1 Peter 2:18; 1 Tim. 6:1). (2) The slave 
has a spiritual freedom that makes him superior to his lot, and a com- 
pensating joy as a brother beloved (Eph. 6:6, 7). (3) Christian mas- 
ters must mitigate the disabilities of their slaves, whether Christian or 
non-Christian (Eph. 6:9). (4) Eventually the spirit of love and 
equality led to frequent manumission, and has resulted in the conscience 
of the modern world. 

2. Some acute problems emerged. (1) For slaves with heathen mas- 
ters. Doubtless they were allowed to practise their religion, though it 
often brought them petty persecution (1 Peter 2:18-21), and to return 
from the freedom of the brotherhood to the temptations of their pagan 
life was hard, being a severe discipline against which they fretted. (2) 
For slaves with believing masters. There was danger from the levelling 
instinct, the undue assertion of privilege, against which Eph. 6:5-8; 
1 Tim. 6 : 1, 2 are directed. 

3. One of the worst results of slavery was the false view of life en- 
gendered in the free classes. Manual labor was shunned by the free 
citizen, the word "mechanical" (p&vawos) being applied with con- 
tempt to the handicraftsman. Agriculture was held in somewhat higher 
esteem because troops of slaves did the menial work. But the gospel 
went first to the cities, and had to face the problem of the "working- 
men." Was the Christian freeman to demean himself by work? 
(1 Thess. 4:11; 2 Thess. 3:10, 12. For Paul's own practice see 1 Cor. 
9:6-19; 2 Thess 3:7-9.) Christianity came with a healthy tonic of work 
to a world which was wearing out in idleness and stupid pride. 

4. In spite of their belief in the speedy coming of Christ the believers 
took the present life earnestly. The Kingdom of God was not merely a 
future event (Rom. 14:17-19). Strange as it may appear moral intui- 
tions, ethical principles and concrete righteousness in everyday life were 
strongest just in that community of people who were most other- 
worldly (1 Thess. 5:1-11). The dynamic of Christian love wrought 
the Christian teaching of divine sonship into a domestic life of great 
originality, comprehensiveness and charm. To-day the worth of Chris- 
tianity is still to be gauged by its power, not by its theory. What is 
its dynamic in my own life and in that of the world? 



59 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 9: The Christian in Public Life 



First Day: Christianity Becomes an Illicit Religion 



1. We have already seen that the Christian was subjected to much 
distress because of the fact that as in other ancient religions there was 
also in that of the Roman Empire a large political factor. No good 
patriot could abjure the religion of the state. But the case was pe- 
culiarly aggravated for the Christian because the emperors were sup- 
posed to be incarnations of the spirit of the empire, and divine honors 
were paid to the hero-genius of imperial Rome during his lifetime, and 
after his death he was consecrated with celestial dignity. Such a system 
was bound to demoralize both the subjects who paid and the monarchs 
who received this homage. Barring this essential demand of worship 
of the emperor, there was an easy-going toleration of any and every 
superstition or cult that each tribe or petty nation brought with it into 
the imperial system. Many thought that the same god was worshiped 
under these different forms, and therefore that one was as good as an- 
other. 

2. There was, however, one remarkable exception. The alien Jew 
lived apart in his own tribes throughout the cities of the empire, and 
enjoyed exemption from conformity to state idolatry. For some years 
the Christian was regarded as a Jew and shared in this exemption. 
Indeed he was first persecuted by the Jew and looked to the Roman to 
protect him from men of his own race (Acts 18:12-17). The powers 
that be are a restraint upon lawlessness (Rom. 13 : 1-7; 1 Peter 2 : 13-17). 
But a change came ere long, and was accelerated by the fall of Jeru- 
salem in A. D. 70. It was manifest that the Christians were distinct from 
the Jews, and that unlike them they were not a nation, but a "new, and 
wicked, and vain superstition." So they received no privileges. _ Un- 
protected by any national breastwork they were like a dangerous island 
shoal of hateful human drift exposed to the sweep of the empire's out- 
raged patriotism. In 1 Peter 4:16; 5:9, we can feel the ground-swell 
of the coming storm, and in Revelation it has broken in all its fury. 
Again and again through the early centuries imperial persecution thun- 
dered upon this island in the ocean of paganism, but it merely cast the 
beach higher, and made a protection which its waves could not pass. 
(See Lecky; Westcott's "Epistles of St. John," Essay, "The Two Em- 
pires.") 



60 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 9: The Christian in Public Life 



Second Day: Difficulties for the Christian Patriot 



1. The Christian religion separated patriotism from religion for the 
first time. Homage paid to an emperor is one thing; homage paid to 
God is another. The state has a right to demand the one; it has no 
right to interfere with the other. At the same time the Christian did 
not cease to be a citizen. Undoubtedly the belief that the world would 
soon pass away blunted the edge of his earthly patriotism, but he still 
had his duties to perform to ordered government. Now when we con- 
sider the trials to which he was exposed, it will appear that it was an 
immense accomplishment that he should have remained loyal. There 
was much of course that he could admire, especially in the government 
of the provinces, for it was on the whole a stable power making for 
order. But Rome came also to be an incarnation of the world spirit, 
the deification of force, an idolatrous perversion of government, which 
entailed vast suffering upon the brethren. Yet they prayed for the em- 
peror and continued to pray for him in their daily service even while the 
fiercest persecutions were raging. Did ever any oppressed people show 
such discrimination and such magnificent ethical restraint? What finer 
exhibition is there of the power of love than this practice ? They knew 
of course that they belonged to another empire, eternal and universal. 
In the present they were nominal citizens. In the other their names 
are truly written. They were an empire within an empire, recognized 
soon as a "third class." 

2. The imperial idolatry like a subtle poison defiled almost every 
department of public life. Take the military system. The old Roman 
virtues had been of that patriotic order which is encouraged by the 
profession of arms. It might seem at first sight strange that the 
brethren whose gospel was in its essence love should be found in the 
army. But many of the officers and soldiers were Christian (Acts 10: 
1; Phil. 1:13), and they would be peculiarly heroic because their con- 
fession would often bring them into direct collision with the idolatrous 
worship of the emperors, as its emblems appeared on the standards and 
otherwise. Yet the Christian is never urged to withdraw from the 
army. This is his field for self-discipline and victory. 



61 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 9: The Christian in Public Life 



Third Day: Temptations in Business and Social Life 



1. Many of the hardest temptations of the average Christian arose 
from his being called upon not to flee from idolatry, but to face it, for it 
met him everywhere. He did business as before, but his trade was af- 
fected by it, several occupations being dependent on temple worship, the 
practice of magic, or heathen rites. We have early proof of such in- 
terference in Acts 19:23-41. Various arts of life must have occasioned 
scruples of conscience to those who when they became Christians had to 
earn a livelihood at their old trade. Early Christian art in the Cata- 
combs shows how with the growing years painters and sculptors of no 
mean order consecrated their brush or chisel to Christian service, the 
new spirit gradually transforming the old pagan devices, blotting out 
unworthy forms, and creating fresh designs with Christian symbolism. 

2. In the pursuit of ordinary business the Christian was liable to be 
brought into the law courts. The Jews had been granted special 
tribunals of their own, before which they could come to terms with a 
fellow Jew, but no such privilege of course was enjoyed by adherents 
of an illicit religion. Unbelievers took advantage of the Christian's 
passivity to drag him into public on false charges, and the spirit in 
which this is to be endured is given in 1 Peter 4:15, 16. Scandals, 
however, arose when under the old habit of litigation brother went to 
law with brother before a heathen judge (1 Cor. 6:5-7). Doubtless the 
words of Jesus (Matt. 5:38ff., 18:15-20) set the standard in such 
matters. 

3. A graver source of danger lay in the social intercourse of the 
believer with his former associates. The cities of Asia Minor and 
Greece were full of clubs for every conceivable purpose, religion, com- 
merce, social enjoyment, and burial. To cut one's self off from club life 
was to cease to be a citizen of the world, and to the blithe Greek that 
was a serious matter. There were two perils connected with it. Idola- 
try was entrenched in this social custom as in a fastness. The club 
house was often an idol temple and the scene of such revellings as 
those of 1 Peter 4:3, 4. Hence Paul forbids Christians to share in 
these feasts (1 Cor. 10:1-22), and enjoins them to find their fellowship 
in the society of the brethren, where chaste love reigns (cf. Rev. 2: 
13, 14). As to eating meat exposed in the markets after it had been 
offered to idols, Paul says that the law of love must be the standard 
here also (1 Cor. 8:1-13). 



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The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 9: The Christian in Public Life 



Fourth Day : The Victory over the Passion for the 
Games 

1. Nowhere did the new religion face heavier odds than when it met 
the fierce passion of the populace for games and gladiatorial shows. 
And yet we have hardly a trace of it in the New Testament; not be- 
cause the struggle was not keen, for the people of Rome were shouting, 
panem et circenses. The thirst for blood grew so fast by what it fed 
upon, that even in the first century it could be slaked only by an un- 
ceasing stream from animals and men. By the thousands they came 
to their death, while Rome in all her social ranks kept holiday in the 
great Colosseum, which gave shelter under silken canopies to over 
fifty thousand spectators. The earth was scoured for the lions, bears 
and elephants wherewith variety might be added to the carnage, for the 
viler the games, the bloodier and more refinedly shocking the deaths, 
the greater the zest not only of coarse slaves, but of aristocratic ladies. 
The emperors gave the people what they craved, but they ruined the 
manhood of the empire, for this horrid cruelty soon spread from Rome 
to the provinces. Some voices it is true were raised in protest against 
the gladiatorial combats, but they were of no avail, and the fact that 
edicts of emperors were ineffectual to cope with the evil finally till the 
reign of Hbnorius, A. D. 404, shows how the populace were absorbed 
in this passion. 

2. Silently and with immense moral suasion the gospel draws the 
brethren away from the amphitheatre one by one, and as each turns 
from a scene which he must quit forever, it protects him with a shield 
of holier fellowship. Life is worth too much to God to be cruelly 
shed in order to satisfy a multitude. Christ has died for the slave and 
the barbarian gladiator. Even the dumb animals are a part of the 
creation which is to share in the blessings of redemption (Rom. 8r 
18-22). 

3. "These games display more vividly than any mere philosophical; 
disquisition the abyss of depravity into which it is possible for human 
nature to sink. They furnish us with striking proofs of the reality of 
the moral progress we have attained, and they enable us in some degree 
to estimate the regenerating influence that Christianity has exercised 
in the world. For the destruction of the gladiatorial games is all its 
work. Philosophers indeed might deplore them, gentle natures might 
shrink from their contagion, but to the multitude they possessed a 
fascination which nothing out the new religion could overcome." 
(Lecky, I., 282; see also Lanciani's "Ruins and Excavations of Ancient 
Rome," 369-374-) 



63 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 9: The Christian in Public Life 



Fifth Day : A True and a False Isolation 



1. Christianity met this craving for amusement by a stern call to 
higher work. The gospel has a strenuous ideal (Luke 14:26s.). Re- 
ligious enthusiasm, even speaking with tongues, counts for little without 
the works of love (Matt. 13:20, 21; Luke 13:23-27; 1 Cor. 14:12). 
There was no place for drones in a community whose duty was urgent 
to preach the gospel (2 Thess. 3:6-15). This heightening of the value 
of life and of time was an immense moral advance in an empire where 
only the slave toiled. Christianity allied herself with the needy and with 
unpopular causes, when the road to life lay that way. She showed a 
heroic indifference to clamor, a "splendid isolation." Like their Mas- 
ter the disciples refused to bow down and worship Satan in order to 
win the world. In the long run it is just by this course that true vic- 
tories over the world are still gained. 

2. There were also subtle intellectual tendencies which threatened 
the ethical standard and endangered the spiritual life of the brethren. 
That world had its intellectual cliques with initiation into mysteries 
and esoteric doctrines, and many wished to make the gospel another 
"mystery," the more abstruse doctrines being of such a nature that the 
common man would take no interest in them. In the second century 
these intellectual aristocrats separated themselves outwardly from the 
Christian Church and formed the schools of the "Gnostics," some of 
them pure in their morals, others ascetic, others gravely licentious, but 
all claiming a superior knowledge of the truth. That these schools de- 
sired to be called Christian is a high tribute to the impression that the 
gospel had made upon the world. Fundamentally these systems were 
corrupt. They left no room for ethical endeavor, for redemption from 
sin, or the Christian conception of God. They were not truly Christian. 
If Gnosticism had fastened itself on Christianity it would have destroyed 
it. It was a parasite and had to be torn off. For its beginnings see 
Eph. 4:14; Col. 2:8, 18 ; 1 John 2 : 18, 19, 22 ; 4 : 2, 3 ; 5 : 6. 



64 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 9: The Christian in Public Life 



Sixth Day : The Failure of the Philosopher to Appre- 
ciate Christianity 



1. It must ever remain a sorry comment on philosophy that during 
the first two centuries its best representatives were at such small pains 
to learn what this new religion meant, and treated with contempt or 
worse a body of people in whose moral endeavors they should have dis- 
cerned some affinity with their own ideals. Epictetus, Pliny, Marcus 
Aurelius, Lucian, even the physician Galen, most sympathetic of all, can- 
not understand Christianity. If it is not entirely fanaticism, what is it? 
They cannot deny that there is an irreducible surd somewhere at its 
heart. Pliny and Galen testify to the high moral quality of the lives of 
the brethren, their self-sacrifice, their purity, their honor and their 
bravery in the face of death. But in spite of this without temple, ritual 
or national God, Christianity is for them an unreasonable atheism. They 
never came close enough to understand this "third class," this imperium 
in imperio, which on their own confession was draining away the life 
from their heathen temples. (See Heinrici, "Das Urchristenthum.") The 
reason of their failure was that those philosophers did not value the facts 
and ideals which were primary in Christianity. Almost every man of 
them accommodated himself more or less in practice to the morals and 
superstitions of the time, since they were in his view part of the neces- 
sary environment of the life of the common people. He knew their 
worth and was not led astray, but either his knowledge was too specula- 
tive, or it seemed to him to have in it too little power to reform popular 
manners. He acquiesced in the conduct of the world and spun fancies 
of better things. 

2. Unfortunately there has been at times since then only too good 
reason for bringing a similar complaint against the intellectual world. 
The educated man often tends to look upon life as a curious object for 
investigation. He does not always collect more facts than are necessary 
to frame an hypothesis. But does he always put the proper value on the 
facts of life? Does he give sufficient credit to the immense latent 
power on the religious and moral side of human nature? So we ask the 
college man, What is the worth of your ideals? Do they get down to 
and inspire the work-a-day world of common men? 



65 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 9: The Christian in Public Life 



Seventh Day : Review and Problem 



1. We may review the situation and state our problem. Christianity- 
enters the world at a time when there was a revival of religious in- 
terest, but little to satisfy that interest, a world that was morally de- 
praved to an unprecedented degree, and yet a world in which many noble 
ideals of humanity lay unproductive in many minds. Impotent pathos 
stood over against ascetism. Suddenly the gospel is preached, and its 
followers are not unreasonably identified by the Gentile world with 
Judaism. But Judaism did not supply the new energy, for it had been 
ineffective itself in moulding the morals of that world to higher ends. 
Christianity is recruited from the intelligent middle classes, with a 
large number of slaves and outcasts, and a sprinkling from the highest 
ranks. But it offers no better terms to the rich than to the poor, to the 
intellectual than to the unlettered. Its ethical demand is from the begin- 
ning utterly stringent. To face a world given over to lust with an 
inviolable law of purity is even to-day regarded by some as visionary; 
to fight the luxury of that world and its mammonism with such a finely 
tempered weapon as the gentle Christian spirit might have seemed to 
court defeat from a coarse and ostentatious age ; to dare to resist point 
blank the passion for lustful amusement and bloody games was in the 
view of common sense the height of folly; to cut right across the social 
strata and establish a brotherhood upon moral and spiritual affinities 
without casting everyday relationships into confusion, and to exalt la- 
bor to a place of dignity, was to show wonderful powers of organization. 
And the total result was a stupendous moral creation. Even had the ef- 
fort been short-lived, what finer flowering of virtue has there ever been ? 
But the dynamic did not spend its force with the passing of the first 
generation. The second century was no more afraid of spiritual venture 
than the first, and the Christian ideal spread over the world. Whence 
came this new standard of conduct and its results in moral heroism? 
Why were Judaism with its prestige of religion and its imperial privi- 
leges, Stoicism intellectually and socially well advantaged, and all other 
ritual and religious systems, so ineffective in grappling with their pres- 
ent distress? The Christians had learned what life is — its worth, its 
sin, its possibility of renewal. Whence came that knowledge? They 
said that these things had come home to them when the good news of 
God in Jesus Christ had been preached to them (Rom. 1:14-17). 



66 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 10: Great Personalities 



First Day: Impressive Characters Appear in this 
Brotherhood During a Sterile Age 



1. Any religion or society is to be judged by the greatness of the 
men whom it produces. Until these arise to gather up in themselves the 
ideas that are in the air, to give emphasis to the winged words charged 
with the live issues that flit from lip to lip, and to embody the answer 
to the longings and hopes of the multitude, the movement does not get 
shape. They understand the force of its conceptions. In their words, 
gesture, energy, and character the idea has its clothing. Its power is to 
be measured by the conviction which those into whose life it is in- 
wrought can inspire in others as to its worth. 

2. Nothing is more characteristic of the living power of Chris- 
tianity than that it has thrown up time and again all down its history, 
out of the depths of the society, some man of immense spiritual force, 
who, owing little or nothing to adventitious conditions such as birth 
or breeding, dominates the world with spiritual ideals, and renews its re- 
ligious convictions. Christianity like a belt of light across the heavens 
has been studded with bright stars in every age, though there are 
peculiarly brilliant clusters at different periods, as in the early cen- 
turies, the reformation epoch, and the century that has just closed. But 
it was from the brightest of these clusters that the Church started on 
her way across our era. No age affords so many examples of high 
character and noble endeavor as the apostolic period. 

3. They are not to be accounted for by the historical and moral con- 
ditions of the time, for if^we except John the Baptist, Judaism had 
produced no prophet for centuries, and the revival of religious ideals 
in the apostles was beyond anything even in the most classic days of 
prophecy. And Hebrew prophecy itself has to be explained. "In all the 
religious history of mankind there is nothing that can be compared to 
the prophetic order in Israel" (A. B. Davidson). Nor was contem- 
porary paganism more productive of great characters. Out of a period 
stretching over a century and a half we can select a Plutarch, a Seneca, 
an Epictetus, or a Marcus Aurelius; these are the best examples of an 
age smitten with moral decrepitude. Paganism had not the vital force 
to beget spiritual offspring. 



67 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 10: Great Personalities 



Second Day: Jesus Elicits Unshaken Loyalty in Men 
of Heroic Mould 

i. In the men of the apostolic period there is, as we shall see, a wide 
range of character, but a common feature is their overwhelming energy. 
They threw themselves into their mission with unflinching courage. It 
is difficult for us to estimate correctly the moral heroism of the first dis- 
ciples of Jesus. They may not have had great worldly prospects, but they 
abandoned all they had (Matt. 19:276?.). Doubtless they expected some 
return (Mark 10:35-37), even in the present, though the fact that they 
clung to their Master as they saw that they were to be disappointed 
should relieve them of a suspicion of having followed Him from un- 
worthy motives. Consider the demands of discipleship (Luke 14:26). 
It was sufficiently exacting during the year of popularity in Galilee, but 
after they learned of His coming death their hopes must have suffered 
collapse. There is something pitiful if it were not heroic in the scene in 
Gethsemane (Luke 22:49-51). Here is a handful of men who have 
thrown over their patriotism and their religious traditions for the sake 
of One who they had hoped would be the Messiah, and He is to die 
and leave them to the hatred of their own people. Even at this moment 
they obey Jesus though they still see a chance of cutting their way 
through their enemies and escaping among the olive trees. They must 
have been men of wonderful spiritual penetration, and Christ must have 
inspired them with supreme love, when their loyalty was tenacious 
amidst this wreck of their lives. 

2. But this devotion to Jesus is no less constant through the re- 
verses and disappointments of the following decades. And these men 
were no ordinary characters ; they have become the spiritual guides of 
the world. Yet they glory in calling themselves slaves of Jesus Christ. 
They were so absorbed in the pursuit of the unseen kingdom which He 
preached that they flung themselves upon danger. A throbbing love to 
Christ drives them through every wave of opposition. There is no 
saving of their own lives, no selfishness, no grudging labor, no careful 
balancing of accounts, no weariness of the toil, no claim of merit, noth- 
ing of hireling service. Those first missionaries of the gospel are 
almost prodigal of all they have, for the best they can give is too little 
for their Master (2 Cor. 5:14). The nobler the character and the more 
varied the endowments of these men, the more glorious must have been 
the Figure who constrained their loyalty. 



68 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 10: Great Personalities 



Third Day : Stephen and Barnabas 



i. We shall consider some of the leading characters of the New 
Testament. Stephen, the first martyr, was unquestionably one of the 
most powerful factors in the development of primitive Christianity, for, 
though his influence on Paul has sometimes been overestimated, he was 
the first to see that if the message of the gospel should be confined 
v.'ithin old Jewish customs, the new wine would burst the old bottles. 
His greatness is displayed both by his insight (Acts 7) and his readi- 
ness for heroic measures (Acts 6:8, 11, 13, 14). Jew as he was, he rose 
above the limitations of his race, and reading as no one yet had done the 
purpose of God's revelation to the world, he tells his hearers that the 
work of the Jewish nation as such is done (7:51-53). They must give 
way to the new Israel. The earthly temple, its ritual, and the legal cus- 
toms are to be displaced by a wider Temple of God in the hearts of 
men. Stephen was the most winsome man of the brotherhood (Acts 6: 
3, 8). Conspicuous for wisdom and for faith, he could adjust delicate 
issues. Prudent and devout, his courage flowed like a steady stream, 
never breaking over shallows. His days were few upon the earth, but 
his character was one of the choicest fruits of the Spirit, for none per- 
haps had so much of the mind of Jesus (Acts 7:60). 

2. Barnabas was also a glory to that early group. Though he be- 
longed to a priestly family (Acts 4:36) he triumphed over his class 
prejudices, and was one of the first to associate himself with the mission 
to the Gentiles. A man of substance he was an example of liberality, 
and did not scorn to work with his own hands for a living (1 Cor. 9: 
6). Unlike Paul he seems never to have been regarded as a party man, 
but retained the confidence of the older wing of the Church (Acts 9:27; 
Gal. 2: iff.). Not less creditable to his character was his willingness to 
be subordinate to Paul, though he had been an older disciple, and had 
done much to pave the way for the former persecutor on his entrance 
into the Church. He had his failings it is true (Acts 15:37-39), but 
Paul pays him a high tribute in the words, "even Barnabas" (Gal. 
2:13). 



69 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 10: Great Personalities 



Fourth Day : James and Peter 



i. James was the head of the conservative element in the Church, 
and seems to have clung more to his Jewish upbringing than any of 
the early leaders. Living in Jerusalem he was a stranger to the world 
outside Jewry of the Palestinian order. He was afraid of the Gentiles 
and of their contaminating customs (Acts 15 : i3fT. ; Gal. 2:12), and was 
suspicious of progress. He seems to have been slow to grasp the full 
reach of a principle, or even to read character (Mark 3:31; John 7:5), 
but he was devotedly loyal to the past in which God had been gracious 
unto him, and was reluctant to move beyond it. He nevertheless al- 
lowed the facts of God's grace to lead him. Steadfastly anchored to his 
old religious life he was yet more true to God and to Jesus as Messiah, 
and under the recital of the facts of Paul's missionary success among 
the Gentiles, he swung round to a position from which he could reach 
out to them the right hand of fellowship and wish them Godspeed on 
their journey. It was a power outside Judaism which led James to do 
this (Gal. 2:9ff.). 

2. In Peter we first meet the leader of primitive Christianity. He 
was a man of action, masterful and impulsive, and became a repre- 
sentative not only among the Jewish Christians, but also in the Gentile 
churches (1 Peter 1:1). Sensitive to his surroundings he seems often 
to have taken steps before he realized the practical consequences of his de- 
cision, and he hesitated to carry them at once to their logical conclusions, 
as Paul with his ruthless logical consistency would do (Gal. 2:11-16). 
He had a buoyant and generous nature, fearless, dictatorial, hot withal 
against impurity (1 Peter 4 and 5), and devoted to his Master in spite 
of lapses (Mark 14:29). He was the first to make open confession of 
Jesus as Messiah, and his gospel which underlies Mark gave the type to 
the preaching of the life of Jesus of Nazareth (Mark 8:29). Neither 
profound nor imaginative, Peter became a man of rock-like nature. 
This seems to have been the impression of him that remained in the 
Church (Matt 16:18; Luke 22:32), no less than that he owed his 
strength to Jesus Christ (Acts 3:12). 



70 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 10: Great Personalities 



Fifth Day : John : Built on the Foundation of Apostles 
and Prophets 



i. John does not occupy a large place in the recorded history of the 
early Church if we omit the Johannine writings, which for our purpose 
we may not assume to be his. But he was one of the most intimate 
circle of Jesus, and along with Peter comes to the front after Pentecost 
(Acts 3: iff. ; 4:13, 19; 8:14). Whatever verdict is passed upon the 
authorship of the fourth gospel, we may infer that John the apostle 
presented in his preaching a different side of the character of Jesus from 
Peter's view. He was probably a mystic, intense in his loves and hates. 
His nature was deep, and we may suppose that he was more responsive 
than any other disciple to the profoundest truths in the mind of his 
Master. 

2. None of these men would have attained immortal fame apart from 
the gospel which they served. It was their privilege and their response 
to their opportunity that made them what they became. The apostle was 
a man who made no claims for himself; he was simply a transmitter of 
the word of Jesus to the world (Mark 3:14, 15; 1 Cor. 3:5-11). Would 
these men have seized upon their own countrymen's imagination for 
their saintliness? Are there not to-day multitudes whose character is 
the equal of theirs? James was narrow, Peter dangerously impulsive, 
neither of them possessing the finely balanced mind which the Greek 
moralists taught to be the sign of the perfect man. With the exception 
of Stephen all seem to have lost at some time their moral footing. 
They impressed the world because of the message they brought. A 
marvelous Person behind them is the only explanation of their influence 
(Acts 4:13). The steel of their character had been tempered to the 
finest issues in His presence. They had bathed their swords in heaven. 

3. The apostolic age, however, presents not only a few super-eminent 
peaks arising out of the depths, but a whole plateau of elevated character 
and endowment. Prophecy, which had been so long dormant, awoke 
again to life (Matt. 10:41; Acts 11:27; 15:32; 1 Cor. 12:28; i4:2Qff. ; 
Eph. 2 : 20 ; 4:11; Rev. 10 : 7 ; 22 : 6, 9) . There were many men richly en- 
dowed with the Spirit of God, not an official class, who proclaimed to the 
Church the truth of the gospel. They spoke in the name of Jesus and 
claimed a divine revelation. Had they really a word from the living 
God ? If not how are they to be accounted for ? To deny that they had 
is simply to deny a fundamental assumption of the New Testament. 



7i 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 10: Great Personalities 



Sixth Day: Paul; His Training, Work and Character 



1. Paul stands by himself. Not only had he transcendent genius, 
and the best educational advantages, but he had a vision of the risen 
Jesus which put his apostleship in a different order from that of those 
who had been with Jesus on earth. His training at Tarsus gave him 
insight into the Greek mind; he was a favorite pupil of the Pharisees 
(Gal. 1:13, 14; Acts 9:1-9), and his Roman citizenship made him an 
imperialist in thought (Rom. 1:14-16). He was thus fitted more than 
any other individual to put his stamp upon Christianity. He has the 
breadth of the educated man, and the outlook of a man of the world. 

2. His commanding personality is shown by his work, his claim 
being that his churches are his certificate when he is traduced (2 Cor. 3 : 
2, 3), for no man was ever more persistently slandered (Gal. 1:10; 6: 
10-17; 2 Cor. 10:11, 12). His authority was acknowledged by the 
churches in the most important cities of the empire, with which he 
maintained an extensive correspondence. These letters, often written 
almost as fugitive instructions, are in the matter of intellectual power 
among the world's great literature, and his skill in dialectic and clear 
exposition, as seen, e. g., in Romans, is of the highest order. 

3. But he was no less distinguished for his sanity in commonplace 
affairs. Where is there a better poised judgment than that which de- 
livered the advice contained in the first epistle to the Corinthians? His 
principles are of the highest, but he knows character and can make al- 
lowance for weakness and difference in circumstances (1 Cor. 7:8). 
He puts his finger with candor and remarkable precision on the spot 
where the ailment is rooted, and as successfully chooses the remedy 
(1 Cor. 11:17-34; 12:30, 31). He is a calm, shrewd man guided by a 
rigid standard of righteousness (Rom. 3:5-8; 6:12-18). Indeed he has 
been the teacher of the most virile portion of the Christian Church. Is 
not this because he is the apostle of freedom, and of faith in Christ and 
His truth? The creator under God of Gentile Christianity, one who 
produced a moral reformation, the effects of which reach even to' the 
present, a man in whom vast intellectual power and sane judgment 
were so eminently combined is surely able to give satisfactory testimony 
as to the controlling forces of his life and their source. What is his 
account of his life? (Gal. 1:11 — 2:21.) 



n 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 
Study 10: Great Personalities 



Seventh Day : Paul a Miracle of Divine Grace 

i. Fortunately we have in an unquestioned epistle a bit of autobiog- 
raphy by Paul on the crisis of his life (Gal. 1:13-17). This passage 
along with 1 Cor. 15:8; Rom. 1:4 makes plain to us that Jesus the 
risen Messiah appeared to him while he was in the full course of his 
career of persecution, convinced him that hitherto his eyes had been 
blinded to the truth, and revealed Himself in him as the Son of God. 
This event explains all his subsequent life. Every action and thought 
springs from his conviction of the grace of God towards him, unworthy 
to be an apostle (1 Cor. 15:9, 10; Eph. 3:8). 

2. This express testimony cannot be invalidated by a theory that the 
apostle suffered from hallucination (2 Cor. 12:1-12), for he always dis- 
tinguishes between these and his first sight of Jesus. This latter event 
was the one breach in his career, up towards which there were no ap- 
proaches from misgiving lest he might be fighting against God. His 
letters show no threads running through his earlier experience in 
Judaism which were lying ready to be combined by a vision into the 
new Christian experience. But were even his visions (2 Cor. 12) noth- 
ing but subjective trances? If so it means that his belief that he re- 
ceived truth from another world was due to the physical reaction from 
an overwrought emotion. But before coming to this conclusion we must 
remember the immense moral forces which he brought into play and 
controlled. Is spiritual intoxication sufficient to account for these un- 
surpassed results in life? If so our best things are based on hallucina- 
tion. 

3. Further Paul is not a fanatic swayed by a theory. He does not 
write about systems and doctrines in the abstract, but about a living 
Person. Jesus Christ entered into his life on a certain day (Gal. 1:16), 
and henceforth the apostle was possessed by an overmastering passion 
for his Lord. Men do not make mistakes about these ethical crises that 
are traced to the appearance of a person who became a steadfast friend, 
and by whose influence they have been saved from ruin. A lover does 
not err as to whether he knows his beloved. And Paul loved Jesus with 
absorbing passion (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 8:35; 2 Cor. 5:14). 

4. Paul cannot be^ explained by his education and environment. He 
impressed the world in spite of his Judaism. Indeed he is often said to 
be discredited to-day because we are supposed to have outgrown his 
Jewish doctrines. But it is precisely in that which is non-Jewish in him 
that his power resides. His enthusiastic witness to the fact that Jesus 
is the crucified and living Christ — the very antithesis of his Jewish 
conceptions — has persuaded the world, for from this preaching flowed a 
moral renewal. Paul repudiates glory for himself. His churches and 
their character are the fruit of the Christ who lives in him (1 Cor. 1: 
23-25 ; 2 Cor. 2 : 14-17 54:5, 7-18) . 



73 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 

Study n: The Christian Literature — The New 
Testament 



First Day: Contemporary Jewish Writings Lack 
Creative Power 

1. Great literature is always the outcome of the powerful emotions, 
convictions, and enthusiasms of life. A sceptical age cannot produce 
books to charm the world, for men are on the whole healthy-minded 
and trust rather than disbelieve. Now the New Testament belongs pre- 
eminently to an age of faith. It is pervaded by one and the same spirit, 
and is in all its varied character and literary forms expressive of a 
unique and strong life. The New Testament is one book because it 
deals with phases of the selfsame life. 

2. As far as literature is concerned the epoch was barren. There 
had been no great ideas stirring to kindle the imagination, and the New 
Testament stands by itself in the century which it covers. To take the 
writings which in form most nearly approach the New Testament — 
the contemporary literature of the Jews. This is somewhat voluminous. 
Leaving out of account the Old Testament Apocrypha, the best writ- 
ings belong to the class entitled "pseudepigraphic," consisting for the 
most part of apocalypses bearing the names of Old Testament worthies 
— the Book of Enoch, the Ascension of Isaiah, the Assumption of Moses, 
the Apocalypse of Baruch. They are composed of visions and medleys of 
fancy wrought into shape as protests against the existing order of 
things, reflections of national ideals cast upon the clouds of a stormy 
present. It is a topsy-turvy world in which the sanity of true literature 
is sacrificed to the dreams of the enthusiast. The average Jewish 
apocalypse is ineffective. In contrast to these our canonical apocalypse, 
though often incongruous and full of unintelligible imagery, is instinct 
with and capable of producing a mighty faith. A passion, a volume of 
belief, a wave of confidence surges through the book, bearing forward 
its strange figures, imagery and visions to a crest, but leaving them 
behind as it rolls on and breaks with magnificence on the shores of the 
eternal world (Rev. 21 and 22). 

3. The Psalms of the Pharisees or Solomon (50 B. C?) are the 
finest of contemporary Jewish literature, suggestive in many ways of the 
hymns of Mary and Zacharias (Luke 1:47-55, 67-79), though they lack 
their buoyant and prophetic spirit. But of all Jewish writings of that 
time it may be said that they are devoid of creative or prophetic genius. 
They smell of the lamp, or have the tone of the ecclesiastic or disap- 
pointed nationalist. Hardly any would be read with interest were it not 
for the light they throw on the world from which the New Testament 
sprang. 



74 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 
Study n: The New Testament 



Second Day: Thrown into Relief by Succeeding 
Writings 

i. A comparison of the New Testament with contemporary or suc- 
ceeding Christian writings heightens the impression of its uniqueness. 
These are easily recognized to be derivative, indeed the best of them are 
frankly so. Any reader of the apocryphal gospels, acts, or epistles finds 
himself ushered into a very rarified atmosphere, which could hardly sus- 
tain high-toned religious life. In them are thrown together things of 
value and things of trivial character side by side. They suffer from 
want of power to discriminate between what is congruous and what is 
singularly inappropriate in persons whose names in the New Testa- 
ment stand for something of altogether different grade. They have 
small sense of spiritual truth. 

2. There are men of distinctly larger caliber on the borderland of 
the apostolic period, where a few of the great figures of the first age 
still linger among their successors. But a decline is manifest even here. 
Clement lacks the prophetic fire of James; Ignatius is fervid and 
lovable, but his intellectual grip is feebler and his spiritual insight less 
discerning than that of the New Testament writers; and the Teaching 
of the Twelve Apostles reveals the process of the purer teaching of the 
perfect law of liberty changing into a legalistic standard. The best 
explanation of this is that none of these writers came into direct touch 
with Jesus Christ and the creative agencies which were at work in the 
circle of His immediate disciples. The personal glow is lessening be- 
cause the Jesus of history is represented now by but few of those who 
knew Him. 

" If I live yet, it is for good, more love 
Through me to men : be nought but ashes here 
That keep awhile my semblance, who was John — 
Still, when they scatter, there is left on earth 
No one alive who knew (consider this.) 
—Saw with his eyes and handled with his hands 
That which was from the first, the Word of Life. 
How will it be when none more saith ' I saw'? " 

— R, Browning: A Death in the Desert. 

The consciousness of the New Testament revelation is expressed in 
Gal. 1:16; i Cor. 15:8, 9; 1 Thess. 4:15; John 1:14; 1 John 1:1-4; 
Rev. 22:18, 19. 

3. The quality of the Christian Fathers of the second, third and 
fourth centuries seems to be purer than that of the sub-apostolic age, 
but they all profess to be merely interpreters of the New Testament, and 
not even secondary sources of revelation. The canonical Scriptures 
are like an oasis in the wilderness. Suddenly the traveler comes upon 
them after having wandered through tracts of barrenness, and in the 
centuries that follow the green spots of spiritual genius are spread along 
the water courses which have issued from this spring of life. 

75 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 
Study n: The New Testament 



Third Day: The Style and Language of the New 

Testament 

1. There is very little literary grace in the New Testament. Some 
of the writers, notably the author of Hebrews, were men of culture, 
but the average style lacks aesthetic distinction, such as belongs to 
masters of the silver age of Greek like Polybius or Plutarch. Paul, it is 
true, was a man of the highest education, but he gave small heed to 
form. In his eagerness he presses forward till he breaks through his 
language and his thought becomes abrupt (2 Cor. 12:1-9; Gal. 1:6-9; 
2:3-10). His message not his style, except in so far as the style is the 
man, gained the attention of his readers, though the cultured Athenians 
found his enthusiasm to be excessive, and put him aside as bad form 
(Acts 17:32). These words are true of the gospel of John — "We 
must not apply aesthetic standards to religious literature, but from the 
peculiar charm of the measured wave-like movement of the sentences, 
which give an impression of the divine character of Jesus, so clear and 
deep, so simple and exalted, so still and so powerful, so solemn and so 
smooth, so enigmatical and so self-evident, no one can escape who 
seeks for Christ in the gospel" (Heinrici). 

2. This drives us down to the heart of the matter. The New Testa- 
ment is a product of the everyday speech of the people, being composed 
in what is called "the common dialect," and that as spoken by the com- 
mon folk rather than as written _ by the cultured. But this language, 
though of vulgar origin, moves with dignity, its spirit is high born, and 
it carries its everyday and simple garb with noble bearing. A few 
words were coined, but the real change is in the spirit with which the 
old terms were invested, words once ignoble or pedestrian, e. g., "cross," 
"minister," "church," "gospel," being exalted to celestial significance; 
while, as we have seen, several of the Christian virtues had to be pro- 
vided with nomenclature. "The vitality of the New Testament language 
resides in the spirit that quickens it. It is as pervasive as the atmos- 
phere, but as intangible as a perfume" (J. H. Thayer). 

3. This phenomenon is worth pondering. The instrument for the 
transmission of divine truth is not the language of the cultured, nor 
of the subtle philosopher; it is just average speech, commonplace ex- 
pression, which any one may understand. A grammarian may be 
shocked at its errors, a rhetorician at the graceless style, but like the 
dull carbon when aglow with electric light, this New Testament speech 
illuminated by the Divine Spirit has shed forth truth upon the world. 
(See Deissmann's "Bible Studies"; J. H. Thayer's article, "Language 
of New Testament" in Hastings' "Dictionary of the Bible" ; J. H. _Moul- 
ton's articles on "Characteristics of New Testament Greek" in the 
"Expositor" for 1904.) 

76 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study n: The New Testament 



Fourth Day: Jewish Books Become the Religious 
Classics of the Gentiles 



i. These books are Jewish in spirit and form. How is it that Jesus 
has become the Teacher of mankind though He couched so much of His 
discourse in provincial Jewish language? How is it that sparks of truth 
shot off in heated controversy with the Pharisees, and expressed in 
terms of the Jewish theocratic ideal, are the vehicle of revelation to the 
world? Because that comparatively sequestered nation had sent forth 
a stream of the noblest teachers in matters that pertain to God and the 
soul. To the Jew belonged the spiritual intelligence necessary to fathom 
the gospel and to interpret it to the world, and he alone had a suffi- 
ciently endowed character to be a competent messenger concerning the 
Kingdom of Jesus. 

2. But the Jewish people of that age had been saddled with the Phari- 
sees, who as self-constituted pedagogues had ridden them into a hard 
slavery. Therefore Jesus had first to unseat these pedagogues, relieve 
the Israelite of his burden, and call to his memory the well-nigh for- 
gotten truths of the prophets on which Hebrew character had been 
moulded. This is the reason of so much discussion in the gospels. 
Only thus could Jesus bring to light the great hidden truths of the past 
and show how they were carried to completion in His message. 

3. On turning to the epistles one might fancy at first sight that they 
could not be attractive to the Gentiles. Romans might be thought to re- 
quire a Jewish constituency, and Hebrews even more so. Their long 
and subtle arguments derive their cogency from their contrasts with 
Jewish theology, practice, or ritual. Their authors appeal boldly to the 
Jewish Scriptures without having recourse to the allegory of Philo in 
order to adapt them to the cultured Gentile world. Then what of the 
imagery of the Apocalypse? And yet in spite of their difficulties they 
have become the standard religious literature of the progressive nations 
of the world ; and not of the Western world alone, for the immense and 
growing work of the Bible societies proves that the Scriptures are dis- 
placing other sacred books where they enter into competition with them. 
How is this to be explained ? 



77 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study n: The New Testament 



Fifth Day: Jesus Christ the Unity of the New 
Testament 



i. The unity of the New Testament is explained by the purpose 
which traverses it from beginning to end, though it is surprising that 
that purpose should have been so consistently maintained in a literature 
which grew as it did. In the case of the gospels it is obvious that they 
were all written with a definite purpose, which from various points of 
view is the same — to set forth the historical facts of Christ's life in such 
a manner as to show that no other foundation can any man lay than 
that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. An actual life, the materials 
of which two writers claim to have verified (Luke 1 : 1-4; John 1 : 14-18; 
!9 : 35; 21:24), forms the source of the rest of the New Testament. 
These gospels were written not as literary biography, but to edify 
(Mark 1:1; Matt. 1:21-23; Luke 1:4; John 20:31). Each writer be- 
lieved that Christ, and He alone, was the Gospel. 

2. Many of the epistles on the other hand were put forth to meet the 
current necessities of the Church (1 Cor.; 2 Cor.; Gal., see especially 6: 
11-18; and 3 John), and we have only a selection from a large corre- 
spondence. But they are all an application of the principles of Christ's 
life to the everyday needs of the believer. As a whole the Acts and 
epistles are an interpretation of the Person of Christ whom His followers 
were learning to know more deeply through experience. "It was by 
something more divine than a sure instinct that the interpretation of 
Christ's Person was made to occupy a larger space in the New Testa- 
ment than even the words of Jesus. It is the faith which the book em- 
bodies more than the facts it states that has placed upon its brow the 
crown of its illuminative history" (Fairbairn). 

3. So the unity of the New Testament consists in its picture of Jesus 
Christ. The writers claim that they can describe this Person. Some 
assert that they had lived with Him on earth, or had had a vision of the 
risen Christ, and that they knew His mind. Though His Spirit still 
lives and works in their midst it must be defined by the character of 
the historic Jesus (John 16:14; 2 Cor. 3:17). The purpose, origin, and 
unity of the New Testament are found in the Person of Jesus Christ. 
It is often a commonplace setting for a wonderful _ character, much of 
it having been written to give advice on humble duties, or to counteract 
mistaken notions of average Christians, but this casual literature has be- 
come the world's standard because of the marvelous Person it enshrines. 



78 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study n: The New Testament 



Sixth Day: The New Testament Answers Man's 
Hardest Questions 



i. But the question still remains, Why do these Jewish books which 
deal with the life and Person of the Messiah appeal to the heart of the 
world? As Coleridge said, the Scriptures "find" us, the same idea that 
they have a marvelous self-revealing power being expressed in Heb. 
4:12, 13; 1 John 5:9-12. No honest soul can carefully study the New 
Testament without being morally quickened, spiritually uplifted and in- 
spired with a new sense of the worth of life. Through it all there is an 
unmatched elevation. Much of this breaks forth from simplest words 
which need no explanation, but can be understood by the unlearned, 
though like pure and clear mountain lakes their depth is unfathomable. 
On the other hand many of the truths of the New Testament are so lofty 
that they seem like distant snow-clad peaks piercing the blue, whose re- 
flection lies across these same mountain lakes, but they are inaccessible 
even to the most experienced climbers. 

2. We do not take long to discover that we ourselves are the greatest 
riddle of life. What am I? Whither am I going? To these the most 
insistent questions of our nature the New Testament supplies the an- 
swer, We are made in the image of God and can find no rest but in Him 
(Matt. 5:48; 11:28, 29; John 14:1-6; 2 Cor. 3:18; Heb. 4:9). The 
fundamental axiom of the Bible is that there is a God. Its revelation 
consists in the nature of the God of whom it teaches. Absolutely 
righteous, self-consistent, free from moods or envy, He is the all-wise, 
eternal Sovereign, loving mercy and hating iniquity, forgiving sin. The 
Holy Father is eager to receive the love of all His children. 

3. As compared with the Old Testament the New Testament teaches 
a fuller idea of the Divine Nature. Holiness is no longer expressed in 
ritual, but in the purest ethical terms, some of the qualities with which 
Jehovah was thought to be endowed by writers of the Old Testament 
having disappeared in the fuller light of the New. It professes to ful- 
fill the promise of the new covenant (Jer. 3i:3ift\). God is no longer 
the God of the Jews, but the Father of mankind. Salvation is for the 
world (John 4:21-24). 



79 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study n: The New Testament 



Seventh Day : The Optimism of the New Testament 
Based on Jesus Christ 



i. Our next question is, What is man? Nowhere are the facts of 
human life faced with such sincerity as in the New Testament. Sin 
is painted as it really is. Man is dealt with as he is found, due heed 
being paid to the testimony of conscience and the lessons of remorse. 
The light of Christ's pure life streaming from the cross deepens the 
sense of human shame. Where is the hideousness of the sin in which 
the race is sunk depicted in such awful and yet self-restrained and dis- 
cerning terms as in the New Testament? (Matt. 23; John 3:17-21; 
Rom. 3:9-20; Eph. 2:1-3; Heb. 2:14, 15; James 4:1-10; 1 Peter 4: 
17-19)- "The human race," as Newman says, "is implicated in some ter- 
rible aboriginal calamity, and is out of joint with the purposes of its 
Creator." This has been called Christian pessimism. 

2. Along with this there is an unexampled view of the noble inherent 
dignity of man, and at the same time strong confidence as to his future 
destiny (1 Cor. 15:20-28). Other literature is full of despondency as to 
human nature, but according to the New Testament the race gets a fresh 
start in Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:12-21; Eph. 2:10; 1 John 4:9). From 
Him flows a stream of pure life for the cleansing of depraved man and 
restoring him to the righteous Father. To these fundamental questions 
as to God, man and salvation there are no discrepant answers in the 
New Testament. The book is one in its spirit. 

3. There is a tendency to-day among some critics to ascribe not only 
Hebrews, but all our gospels except Mark, and many of the chief epis- 
tles to unknown authors, or to schools of apostolic foundation. A real 
appreciation of the spiritual magnitude of these books renders this 
prima facie very unlikely. Was the turn of the first century so prolific 
in spiritual genius that the authors of these world classics should have 
been lost in the crowd? To point to the anonymity of Jewish literature 
does not meet the difficulty, for none of it is of first rate order. 
But it is especially insufficient as an answer because the writers of the 
New Testament lay such stress on testimony. Their gospel was bound 
up with the truth of certain facts concerning Jesus Christ. If the New 
Testament is derived from the apostles or their companions, and is due 
to the more or less direct inspiration of Jesus Christ whom they knew 
and loved, there is at least an adequate solution of the problem on its 
religious side. 



80 



PART II. 



THE NEW TESTAMENT EXPLANATION OF THE 
FOREGOING PHENOMENA— THE APOSTOLIC 
GOSPEL 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 

Study 12: The Gospel 



First Day : The Phenomena and Their Wondrous 
Explanation 

1. To recapitulate, we have been brought face to face with a mar- 
velous ethical creation, a new type of character and life. Within the 
widely scattered and variously assorted Christian Brotherhood there 
arose an ideal transcending in its worth the purest dreams of prophets 
and sages, and that ideal was wrought out in the everyday life of mul- 
titudes drawn from every rank in society, and often from most untoward 
circumstances. Not only were humble lives beautified, but they were 
inspired by a conviction of the worth of the unseen which reversed for 
them the values placed by the ordinary man on the things of the world. 
Their richest blessings lay in the beyond. Moreover, new powers were 
at work in their midst, which they believed to come as spiritual gifts 
from their exalted Lord. It was a brotherhood of priests and prophets 
all in the enjoyment of the Holy Spirit, but there emerged from it a 
number of men of supreme endowments whose spiritual eminence gave 
them leadership. From the circle of the brethren there has also come 
a literature which is the classic source for the religious and moral ideals 
of the Western civilization. 

2. How are we to account for this phenomenon? The explanation 
of the New Testament itself is that it was due to the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ. This might be inferred from the position given to the narra- 
tives of the life of Jesus and their length, at the opening of the New 
Testament. But it is explicitly stated by Paul almost as a ringing chal- 
lenge (1 Cor. 1:18-25; Gal. 3:1-5), and the epistles to the Hebrews 
(2:3, 4), of James (1 : 18), Peter (1 Peter 1 : 23-25), and John (1 John 1 : 
7; 4 : 14) bear witness to the same effect. All agree that there is one and 
only one source of moral renewal, that no other gospel can compete with 
their message (Gal. i:6ff.). 

3. That gospel had a vitality which radium-like was not diminished 
by the moral energy it created. Doubtless its success was an immense 
confirmatory evidence of its universal truth to the first missionaries. 
But in itself their message was to them a constant wonder. They felt 
even more than we do that their words and the phenomena of their circle 
were a startling contrast to the ordinary happenings of life. They 
realized to the full the magnitude of the change that had come over the 
world, and they were prepared to accept responsibility for the stu- 
pendous explanation they gave of its cause. It is impossible to # trace 
an increasing wonder fed by fancy across a chasm of years, beginning 
in the earlier books and growing as myths grow, till a simple human life 
is cast like the Brocken mirage in giant shape upon the clouds of the 
imagination. They knew that they were living in the midst of wonders 
transacted in a commonplace world. In its full daylight they gave one 
and the same self-consistent account of these marvels. But they stood 
almost aghast at the audacity of their explanation (Rom. 1:16, 17; n: 
33-36; Heb. 1:1-4; 1 Peter 1:10-12; 1 John 3:1, 2). 

83 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 12: The Gospel 



Second Day : The Living Word of Truth 



1. The gospel is "the Word of God," which God Himself speaks. 
There has been but one Word from the beginning, though its meaning 
has only fully come in Jesus Christ (Heb. 1:1). No commoner figure 
for the gospel is found than that of the seed (Matt. 13:3-23). This 
seed is germinant with the will of God for our salvation (James 1 : 18 ; 
1 Peter 1:23-25). Carried by preachers to every part of the world the 
seed bears fruit, and waxing strong enables those who receive it to over- 
come the evil (Col. 1:6; 1 John 2:14). 

2. It is a living word. As such it is in marked contrast to the writ- 
ten code of the old covenant, which like all mere systems of precepts 
grew antiquated (2 Cor. 3:6; Gal. 3:21). Life exists only by adaptation 
to environment, or, perhaps we should say, by adapting through its in- 
herent power its environment to its own uses, transmuting dead material 
into forms of organic existence. In like manner the gospel is not a dead 
written letter, but is an eternal truth that will fit itself into each indi- 
vidual's conditions and into the circumstances of every age (John 
16:13). 

3. As the word of God the gospel is "the truth" (1 Thess. 2:13; 
Eph. 1 : 13 ; 2 Tim. 2:15; Heb. 10 : 26 ; James 1:18; 1 John 4:6). This is 
a wide term, covering all life ; it is an ethical or spiritual idea, not 
primarily intellectual. The gospel is what God has to say on life in its 
complete range, and just because it helps men to attain unto the "more 
life and fuller" it is their salvation. It is the truth because God Himself 
who speaks it is the Light (1 John 1:5; Eph. 5:8, 9, 13). 

4. Therefore the gospel is authoritative. Man's word may be a mat- 
ter of opinion, shifting as the wind or designed by craft after the wiles 
of error. Not so God's word (Eph. 4:14). Like all truth it searches 
the conscience and will not allow a man to conceal his sins from the 
scrutiny of God (Heb. 4:12, 13). There is such a thing as a duty to 
believe. Words of the truth of life come home to a man speaking with 
the tones of a rightful master in the inmost rooms of the heart, and 
they send the evil spirits shuddering out into the dark. Such a power 
the gospel has always exercised. It is not a few precepts to be exhausted 
by literal obedience, nor mere formulas in the shape of a creed to be 
assented to as theoretically correct. 



84 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 12: The Gospel 



Third Day: The Unchanging Gospel Comes from Jesus 

Christ 



1. The gospel of the living God, the one and unchanging truth, is 
traced back to the life of Jesus upon earth (1 Tim. 6:3). In one of 
the latest writings of the New Testament we find the conviction that the 
gospel as preached in the Christian tradition is true to its source 
(1 John 1:3; 2:7) ; indeed in this epistle great stress is laid on the truth 
of the gospel as being guaranteed by personal testimony (1 John 1:1-3; 
4 : 14) . On turning to one of the earlier and indisputable letters we dis- 
cover the same sense of continuous tradition, and that, too, in a church 
over which the apostle had no authority, and to whose foundation and 
upbuilding he had so far contributed nothing. Paul's words in Rom. 6: 
17 imply that the gospel to which his readers owe their salvation is the 
same as that which he preaches. Moreover, it is truth to be obeyed. 

2. The Book of Acts may be taken as representing the common be- 
lief of the Church during the latter half of the first century. From 
Acts 2 : 42 we gather that the brethren were persuaded that one and 
only one variety of doctrine had been handed down from the apostles. 
Paul mentions in Gal. 1 : 23 the incredulity of the churches of Judaea 
with regard to himself. Evidently there was only one "faith," or body 
of truth which evoked faith among the brethren. With intense indig- 
nation he rejects the half truths of his opponents as being destructive 
of his gospel (Gal. 1:7; 2:7). This common faith centered in the un- 
changing Jesus Christ (Heb. 13:7-9). 

3. The gospel then was regarded as one and the same. It had been 
preached before Paul was converted, in Judaea (1 Thess. 2:14), Rome 
and other parts, and it was held, they believed, in its ancient purity by 
the Hebrew Christians, and by the churches of Asia Minor to which 
the Johannine epistles were written. But though it was the same word 
of God, some had heard it directly others indirectly. Many claimed that 
they had listened to Jesus Himself on earth (John 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:6). 
Paul got his gospel from the risen Christ; most, however, from those 
who had been disciples of Jesus (Heb. 2:3). It was in one and all the 
Gospel of God traced back to its first Preacher, Jesus Himself (Mark 
1:14; John 18:37). 



85 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 12: The Gospel 



Fourth Day : The Gospel the Good News of God's Grace 



1. In its literal sense the word "gospel" means "good news." As 
employed in the New Testament, where it first occurs in the narratives 
of Christ's life, it implies that a line of promises lies behind it. Jehovah 
had spoken good tidings through His prophets of a glorious coming 
kingdom, and of a new covenant when the Spirit of the Lord would be 
poured forth (Jer. 31:31m). All these things are fulfilled in Jesus 
Christ (Matt. 26:28). The new Israel takes the place of the old (1 Peter 
2:4-10). 

2. The gospel is indeed the best of all news, for it tells of salvation 
to a world of sinful men. All are plunged in sin, and under the distress 
of guilt. God's anger is manifested everywhere in the blunted under- 
standing, the evil impulses of men, and their works of darkness (Eph. 
2:1, 3, 12; 4:18). Mankind is in an evil plight, but to this aberrant 
and undeserving world there comes a message of grace. "Grace" and 
"gospel" are almost convertible terms. Grace is the quality of the sov- 
ereign Father who has not averted His countenance from the children of 
men in fixed displeasure, but has turned it towards them, and is willing 
to enter into fellowship with all His sinful sons who will turn to Him 
(Acts 11:23; Rom. 1:5; 3:24; Eph. 2:8; James 4:6; 1 Peter 1:10). 
Salvation issues from the gracious disposition of God. The gospel is the 
glad tidings that God has actually drawn near to pardon men. 

3. Thus the New Testament idea of salvation puts it far beyond the 
reach of any mere effort of man by himself. It is not the result of his 
ethical striving to loosen himself from the coils that his sin has wound 
about him; it is not bestowed as a measure of desert; it does not come 
in an order of merit to those whose character is less sinful than that 
of their fellows. Salvation is a free, unstinted gift for all equally, if 
they will receive it, from the Father of lights whose loving face is 
shadowed by no eclipse (James 1:17). This undeserved blessing is so 
beyond the devisings of man, both in its present potency and its promise, 
that its contemplation awakens the writers of the New Testament to 
ever-increasing marvel. History converges upon its announcement; the 
prophets of the past, burdened with such gracious purposes, peer into 
the future to catch a glimpse of its glories, and the angels in heaven 
cease for a moment in their service to behold the progress of the message 
on earth (1 Peter 1:10-12; Eph. 1:4, 10). 



86 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 12: The Gospel 



Fifth Day: How Can Sinful Man Approach the Holy 

God 



1. The primary fact of the gospel is its message as to God. He is the 
Father of mercies and God of all comfort (2 Cor. 1:3), the Bestower of 
grace, the Enricher with every blessing (1 Cor. 1:4, 5) ; He pardons 
sin and sheds the beauty of holiness on all who come within the range 
of His gifts (Heb. 13:20, 21). But the God of the New Testament is 
also the Jehovah of the Old Testament, the eternal righteous One in 
whom is light and no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). No shadow from 
the clouds of our sinful world is cast upon His holiness (Job 15 : 15 ; 
Heb. 9:23). How then can He come into contact with such a world 
as ours ? Sin is the negation of the divine rule. God is holy love. Are 
not the objects of His love only those who love righteousness and hate 
iniquity? Is it not self-contradicting for a holy God to have intercourse 
with a world of sinful men? How is the Christian message of the God 
of grace possible? 

2. The Jew felt this difficulty, and in order not to infringe upon the 
divine holiness he taught that Jehovah dwelt apart from this world. The 
Jew had become a deist. Bold and hard as this doctrine was it ex- 
pressed a far profounder religious idea than that of the Greeks, who 
allowed their gods freer license than men in their debaucheries. Jehovah 
was for the Jew at once the source and the standard of all moral ex- 
cellence. Plato had put this dilemma, Is holiness holiness because it is 
loved by the gods? or is it loved by the gods because it is holiness? 
The Hebrew replied, The will of God is holiness. Holiness is not a law 
that stands above and outside God. Garbled as was the teaching of the 
later scribes, the message of Israel was always recognizable, that God is 
an ethical Person from whom comes the unchanging moral order of the 
world. 

3. But here arose the despair of prophecy (Isa. 6:5-7). The higher 
the ideal of holiness the more impossible did its realization appear. 
Mortal man is overpowered by the sublime moral excellence of Jehovah 
(Gen. 32:30; Ex. 33:20). He is the unapproachable Sovereign, the only 
incomparable Object of human adoration. Purity of life was a demand 
even for the worshiper in the temple (Ps. 15; 24:3-6). How then can 
frail, sinful man draw near to the eternal holy God ? 



87 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 12: The Gospel 



Sixth Day: The Prophetic Conception of the Holiness 
of God Surpassed by That of the New Testament 



1. Though the substance of the teaching of the prophets never quite 
perished from the people even in the most degenerate days of Judaism, 
there had been a deplorable abatement in the ideal. They seem to have 
argued that since purity could be found absolutely only in God, they 
must cease to aim too high. Man must be satisfied with something less 
exacting than absolute righteousness. Jehovah would be contented with 
what is attainable by so frail a creature. This led inevitably to the Jew 
falling to the lower ideal which he had pitched for his minimum require- 
ment of character. The heroic died out of his morals. 

2. In the desert of Judaea a prophet is heard once more when John 
the Baptist calls the people to repentance, and multitudes are consecrated 
to a new life. Jehovah is no absentee God. He is coming to speak to 
His people. Even now the living God is on His way. There shall be 
much winnowing on the old threshing floor and a harvest of fresh grain 
be brought in. The gospels open with this call to reformation in order 
to prepare for approaching judgment (Matt. 3:1-12). 

3. Pure as was the prophetic idea of God, revived in the preaching of 
the Baptist, it was surpassed by that of Jesus and His apostles. God the 
Father is Spirit (John 4:21-24). His holiness can no longer be sym- 
bolized by any such ritual as even the prophets of Israel employed. 
True worship must be in man's spirit where the divine image has been 
left upon him, and by a communion which is real, between God and the 
soul in very truth, and not merely through the darkened glass of the 
old temple service. He is the Father, but the Holy Father (1 Peter 1: 
15-17) . Paul also has a passion for righteousness (Rom. 9 : 14-24 ; 3 : 3-6) . 
One of the leading themes of the Epistle to the Hebrews is the necessity 
of a more sympathetic and faithful priest (Heb. 2:17; 4:14-16), a more 
real temple and a more efficient sacrifice (7:26-28; 8:1, 2; 9:14; 10: 
19-22), in order that we may enjoy fellowship with our heavenly Father. 
But it is needless to labor at such a plain truth as speaks from every 
page of the New Testament. From God the primal light is the highest 
that hath entered into the mind of man of purity, virtue, holiness. 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 

Study 12: The Gospel 



Seventh Day : Jesus Christ the Proof that God is Holy 

Love 



1. But no less distinctive of the New Testament conception of God is 
the idea of His love. He is the Father, albeit the Holy Father. He re- 
deems the world from sin and reconciles it to Himself. How is this 
possible? It is because He is Holy Love (1 John 4:7-19). Only the 
Holy God could devise salvation, for all sin is rebellion against His will. 
Only the God of Love could effect salvation, for this is the one power 
that can overcome hate. Holy Love is not indiscriminate benevolence, 
a quality less than the highest in a world where moral order is supreme. 
Whatever rescue is purposed by Divine Love must not do violence to 
Divine Holiness. The message of the gospel is that God the Father 
Himself has shown to the world not only His supreme love, but His 
supreme wisdom in establishing such a salvation (John 1 : 29 ; Rom. 3 : 
26; 1 Peter 1:18, 19; 1 John 1:7-9). 

2. This is just the message the world needs. But is it true? A 
prophet might have a vision of such blessed hope born of his travail in 
this world of distress and sin, but what proof could he afford to others 
that his dream was more than his own ideal cast upon the lurid back- 
ground of life ? There are other things in life besides ideals. We have 
an awful experience. Sin reigns. Death, its curse, is part of the crushing 
natural order to which the proudest must submit. Is there in reality, as 
the noblest of our race have believed, a realm of eternal truth beyond the 
present, so that this world is but a gloomily brilliant drop scene, which 
shall some day rise and disclose the glory that excelleth ? 

3. In answer to such questionings the unanimous, nay, passionate re- 
ply of the New Testament writers is that they have proof of these be- 
liefs as to God and the other world which are beyond the shadow of a 
cavil. Never since the birth of history has there been such conviction 
of the reality of the unseen and of the triumph of human nature in that 
goal of all good, the Kingdom of God. All their avenues of sense, 
thought and heart were crowded with proofs not to be gainsaid that the 
things most surely believed by them were true. But these proofs were 
all gathered up for them in the one great fact — Jesus Christ. He was 
not only the proof of their gospel. He was their gospel. T0 1 use the 
fine old figure, He is the Rock of Ages. Against it waves might dash, 
men might be swept past it, mists and clouds might gather round its 
peaks, but He stood as the one great fact that could not be shaken. In 
Him was a wealth of truth as to the reconciling and triumphant Holy 
Love of God that was beyond mortal powers to track out (Eph. 3:8). 



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Study 13: The Jesus of the Gospels 



First Day: Our Gospels the Product of Faith in Jesus 
Christ as the Risen and Living Son of God 



1. It is assumed in the New Testament that the foundation of the 
Christian faith was laid when Jesus Christ appeared on the scene of the 
world's history. The four gospels stand at its beginning as the source 
from which the new life took its rise. These gospels were written of 
course by believers, and they present the average Christian opinion of 
Christ from, at latest, the last quarter of the first century onwards. We 
have no life of Christ, strange to say not even any significant estimate 
of Him or His work, from Jew or pagan. Those who wrote these gos- 
pels as they now stand were not only sympathetic towards Jesus, but 
were persuaded that He had a right to those Divine attributes which in 
the Old Testament were the prerogatives of Jehovah alone. So every in- 
cident of His life on earth is recorded by men who were convinced that 
He was the Son of God. The facts are dyed in the color in which they 
were immersed. 

2. Every gospel was written after the epistles of Paul. They saw the 
light first in a world which, we have already seen, accepted a common 
gospel, and the evident purpose of each narrative is so to portray the 
life of Jesus as to edify a church already holding a gospel in all essen- 
tials the same as that given us in the epistles of Paul. Even the gospel 
of Mark, which is accepted to-day by scholars as the earliest of all, is 
in its present form a portraiture of Jesus as the Son of God in very 
much the same sense as Rom. 1 : 1-4. 

3. For our present purpose therefore we may take our gospels as 
they now stand, postponing any ulterior questions as to the Jesus of his- 
tory, since our aim is to study the Person whom the Church, whose 
life we have already seen, placed at the heart of her gospel. That 
Church found both her motive and her hope in the Christ whose nature 
was far beyond any human proportions, and believed intensely that this 
Christ was also the Jesus of history. Unfortunately, perhaps one may 
say, this belief is not so universal in our age, "sicklied o'er with the pale 
cast of thought." But what Figure is it that comes forth with such 
majesty from the pages of our gospels? 



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Study 13: The Jesus of the Gospels 



Second Day: Elements in His Perfect Character — Its 

Equipoise 

1. (1) Jesus is represented in the gospels as a perfectly sinless hu- 
man being, and as the supreme ideal of manhood. This is stated in so 
many words in John 8 : 46, and is an assumption in the Person portrayed 
throughout the fourth gospel (John 1 : 14-18, 29; 6:51 ; 18:37). But it is 
also involved in the synoptic gospels — in the narratives of the Baptism 
and Transfiguration (Mark 1:11; 9:7), in the intuition of the demons 
(Mark 1:24), the self-reproach of Peter (Luke 5:8), in the insincere 
admission of the Pharisees who could find no fault in Him (Matt. 22 : 
16), the testimony of Pilate (Matt. 27:24), and of the centurion (Luke 
23:47)- 

2. Various elements in the character of Jesus contribute to its per- 
fection, (a) His life as depicted in the gospels displays wonderful equi- 
poise. The perfection of the Greek statue was its absolute proportion, 
each part being wrought out to the right mean in which excellence 
resides, and each part harmonizing with the rest. The Greek put his 
ideal of perfect beauty into marble ; Jesus Christ embodied a more ideal 
beauty in human flesh and blood. He also lived a life of true propor- 
tion, being neither an ascetic nor a light-hearted man of the world. 
Mingling with the multitudes on the highway He knew the cares and 
pleasures of the average man and woman (Matt. 6:19-34). It was a 
delight for Him to have intercourse, with them, so that His enemies re- 
viled Him because He was not only friendly with social outcasts (Matt. 
9:11), but apparently enjoyed life with them (Matt. 11:19). He loved 
the world of men, rejoicing with those who rejoiced (John 2:1-11), and 
weeping with those that wept (John 11:35). 

3. It is, however, an error to think of Jesus as light of heart and free 
from care as "a brook warbling through a glade in summer time." His- 
tory has not been far astray in depicting Jesus as "the man of sorrows." 
Confronted each day by Pharisees who had turned the religion of 
Jehovah into a mockery, and by a world abandoned to material pursuits, 
He often utters a cry of sadness (Mark 3:5; 8:11, 12, 15, 17) ; the bur- 
den of men's suffering pressed sorely on Him (Mark 7:8; John 11:38), 
and His own life was lived under the shadow of the cross (Mark 2:20; 
8:31; 10:45). But His sorrow was tempered by the constant thought 
of His Father's will, and His highest joy was irradiated by gladsome 
service to others. 



9i 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 13: The Jesus of the Gospels 



Third Day: His Sinlessness 



1. (b) There is no trace of self-dissatisfaction in the life of Jesus. 
It is true that He grew in wisdom (Luke 2:52), and the temptation 
(Luke 4 : 1-13) is explicable only on the assumption that when God's 
will was revealed to Him in the baptism, He found it a hard struggle 
to abandon the ideal of the Kingdom of God, which till this time He 
had cherished as the will of God, for the higher ideal of winning the 
kingdom through a life of suffering. But the narrative distinctly states 
that He was victorious (4:13), and thus far He had evidently attained. 
Other struggles came, notably the agonized fear of Gethsemane (Luke 
22:44), but they reveal to us the process by which He learned obedience 
(Heb. 5:7, 8), a progress in which He put his foot firmly, if often with 
infinite pain, on the step that rose before Him and never wavered nor 
retreated. Unlike the ordinary man He displays none of the repeated 
effort to force a reluctant and undisciplined lower self into obedience 
to His higher nature. Of all men He alone can be said to have at- 
tained. 

2. The distress of Jesus is occasioned by the evils among which He 
feels constrained to live. His love impels Him to sacrifice His own 
felicity in order to place Himself alongside of men whose natures and 
conditions, so antagonistic to His own in many respects, must have 
caused Him intense suffering. Against the purity of His life the depth 
to which hatred can go seems abysmal. No one by life and word has 
ever given even approximately such a relentless exposure of the heart of 
sin. Apart from the interpretation of Gethsemane as the proof that 
Jesus had taken upon Himself a responsibility for sins, which were 
causing Him no sense of personal guilt, He is not so brave in death 
as many an average man. 

3. Jesus looks into the mirror of His own heart to find reflected 
there the will of God (Matt. 11:27; John 5:19). Paul on the contrary 
always looks to Christ, and his life is one of desperate struggle, the odds 
being often so heavy against him that he almost fears for the result 
(1 Cor. 9:27). Jesus having created a new sense of sin in the world, 
and having set an unattainable standard of conduct before men, must 
surely be sinless, if He is thus free from self-dissatisfaction. He reads 
the hearts of others (Mark 2:9) ; could He not read His own, and see 
the slightest taint of sin if there had been any there? Could He in 
truth have uttered the words of Matt. 11:28-30 unless He had been 
pure in heart? 



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Study 13: The Jesus of the Gospels 



Fourth Day : His Sympathy, and Attitude Towards God 



1. (c) Jesus exhibits perfect sympathy towards men. His judg- 
ments are expressed with searching truthfulness, and he reads men's 
motives at a glance. Hypocrisy is revealed with scorn (Matt. 22:18; 
23 :i3ff.). But He calls the sinner and the outcast to Himself without 
harshness (Luke 7^475 John 5-' }4', Mark 14:38). In spite of His own 
purity He can deal mercifully with the sinner. (See especially the pas- 
sage inserted in John 8:1-11). In this marvelous combination He sur- 
passes the greatest of His apostles, who for all their moral sanity oc- 
casionally overstepped the mark (Gal. 5:12; 6:17; 2 Cor. 12: iff. ; cf. 
1 John 2:22 with Matt. 12:32). But Jesus knew exactly how to appor- 
tion guilt, how to hold the balance between what was within one's power 
and what beyond it. So the multitudes gathered round Him in- 
stinctively. Women laden with their sins were not ashamed in His 
presence. Even Judas killed himself in remorse for having betrayed 
Him. 

2. Jesus is further the perfect pattern for men in their attitude 
towards God. He is perfectly obedient as a Son to His Father. Prayer 
is His constant refuge when He is wearied^ out by sympathizing with 
human sorrows (Mark 1:35). Before the crises of His career He with- 
draws into solitude for communion with His Father (Luke 6:12; 9:18). 
His life is fed on His Father's word (Matt. 4:4), to do His will is His 
nourishment (John 4:34). Every turn that opens up for Him some 
new phase of His work is announced by His Father's voice (John 2:4; 
Luke 10 : 21 ; John 7 : 30 ; 12 : 23 ; Mark 14 : 35) . 

It is in this utter obedience to His heavenly Father that Jesus is the 
Example for His followers. His purity and moral completeness are 
beyond what frail men can hope to attain in this life, but His life of 
faith in God, the source of His strength, is the final exhibition of our 
duty and attitude towards our unseen Father. 



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The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 
Study 13: The Jesus of the Gospels 



Fifth Day: Some Leading Principles in the Teaching 

of Jesus 

1. (2) The teaching of Jesus contributes largely to the estimate 
which we form of the character of this Person in whom the brotherhood 
believed. His doctrine dealt chiefly with eternal life in the Kingdom of 
God. Its conditions of entrance are given in John 3:3; Matt. 18:3; and 
the quality of its members in Matt. 5 : 1-16. They are bound over to a 
most stringent righteousness penetrating below the letter of God's law 
to its spirit (Matt. 5:17-20). There are two foci to the ellipse of the 
life of a citizen of the Kingdom of God — love to God and love to man 
(Mark 12:28-31). Love is thus the fulfilling of the law. Now for- 
evermore religion and morality are united. It is true that the Old 
Testament prophets had sought to unite what the ritualists had divorced, 
but with comparative unsuccess (Micah 6:8). Jesus brought into 
prominence the deepest truths of the old covenant and made them live 
in the hearts of His disciples. 

2. He distinguishes what is ethical and spiritual from what is merely 
ceremonial or civil (Matt. 5:21 — 6:18). Essentially different as they 
are in themselves they lay side by side in the Jewish economy as in- 
timately as the particles in a heap of iron filings and sulphur, though 
they were never fused into one, and in that age there was no prophetic 
power which like the magnet could disengage the true steel from the 
heap. Jewry was ruled more by caste than by true religion. But Jesus 
swept away the artificial and unethical distinctions of ritual cleanness 
(Mark 7:1-23). This was to prove a far-reaching revolution, though 
formally it was only the clear enunciation of the old demand for purity 
of heart (Prov. 4:23). Instead of the worship of the letter or the form, 
God must be worshiped in spirit and in truth (John 4:23, 24), and along 
with this must go genuine service towards man, which is most truly 
illustrated in the life of the Son of man (Mark 10:45). 

3. The teaching of Jesus does not consist of precepts, nor is it a new 
codified morality, but it comprehends a few universal principles which 
cover the life of man as it relates to God, his fellow, and himself. He 
teaches further that the Old Testament when rightly understood con- 
tains the substance, if it be only in bud, of what in His words bursts 
forth into full flower (Matt. 5 : 17-20; John. 5 :46, 47). But they have a 
wonderful originality, (a) He gives the old ideas new emphasis, new 
perspective and a spiritual purity which the Old Testament setting often 
obscured. This is most obviously so in His doctrine of God as the holy 
yet loving Father of each individual who will accept the salvation 
His love has provided (John 3:16). (b) Religion and morality are 
indissolubly combined, and the essential and formal in worship, civil 
ordinances and the ethical life distinguished by a spiritual principle 
(Matt. 12:7; 9:14-17; 6:1-18). (c) Morality is widened to embrace 
mankind. Whoever is in need is one's neighbor (Luke 10:29-37). 
(For the subject of this study see Bosworth's "Studies in the Teaching 
of Jesus," xvi. — xxiii.) 

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The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 13: The Jesus of the Gospels 



Sixth Day: Jesus as a Worker of Miracles 



1. To appreciate the effect of this teaching on the disciples and the 
multitudes we must remember the wonderful character of Him who 
taught, and further the power which was disclosed in His life. Person, 
words and works are all combined in our gospels to produce a Figure 
of extraordinary impressiveness. So we proceed to the miraculous 
element in the gospels as they stand. 

2. Jesus has great influence over the demons, working by the finger 
of God results that put the Pharisees to shame. Their exorcism was 
as a rule a bungling imposition (Mark 3:22-27; cf. Luke 11:14-26). 
His ministry is filled with the liberation of victims to this awful servi- 
tude. 

3. There are other miracles with a greater show of power embedded 
in these narratives, not only miracles of healing (Matt. 4:24; 12:15), 
but stupendous acts of supremacy over nature in its mightier aspects 
(Mark 5:35-43; 6:30-52). No reader, however, can fail to be struck 
by the sobriety of the delineation, for all these mighty deeds are inter- 
woven in a narrative which sets forth Jesus as a marvelous moral char- 
acter. The temptation of Jesus, in which once and for all the spiritual 
principles of His life's work are assumed, involves the possesion of 
ability to work miracles. 

There is nothing of the mythological in this Figure. The mythical 
hero performs wondrous deeds in order to magnify his own glory in 
the sight of others, either by extricating himself from a difficulty or 
astounding by his power. Jesus never does this (Matt. 4:3-7). He 
is thoroughly human as far as He Himself is concerned. His power is 
used only for the good of others. Then His works are sane, self- 
restrained and ethical. So their effect on the people was not to fill them 
with alarm, as though their life were delivered up to the caprice of an 
all-powerful man. He gave them instead a sense of security, because 
they felt that His pure will lay behind His works. A particularly in- 
structive example is afforded by Luke 5:8, where Peter's surprise is 
aroused not by the display of power, but by the holiness of One who 
could do such a miracle. No figure in literature competes with Jesus in 
the sanity of His miracles, and the perfect moral restraint under which 
He performs them for the good of others rather than of Himself. 



95 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 13: The Jesus of the Gospels 



Seventh Day: The Place of the Miracles of Jesus in 
the Apostolic Gospel 

1. We may consider now what contribution the miracles of Jesus 
made to the gospel in the view of those who have recorded them for us.. 

Those disciples believed intensely that Jesus was Lord of this world, 
so that He was able to save them from any earthly disaster. Love was 
at the helm and would bring them safely through, for He could say to 
the waves, "Peace, be still" (Mark 4:35-41). This belief was un- 
doubtedly a great source of comfort to His followers, who from the 
sixth decade of the first century were subjected to world forces so 
hostile that nothing but the most vivid faith in a Master who was Lord 
even of world empires would suffice to deliver them. Is the buoyant 
faith of the Apocalypse and of the early Church generally to be credited 
with transmuting a non-miraculous Jesus into the all-powerful Christ, 
simply because they needed such an one to support them in their trials? 
When men are sinking in a storm they need more than a straw to save 
them. 

2. The miraculous control of Jesus over the world also supplied their 
gospel with the truth that the world must serve the kingdom, and the 
material become a slave to the spiritual. His sovereignty over nature 
never seemed to them to violate law, for according to His teaching and 
their belief, the world was nothing in itself, and was only to last until 
God's purposes for the Kingdom of Heaven in this earthly scene should 
be complete (Matt. 24:14, 29-31, 35). The natural world was merely a 
stage for a spiritual drama. 

3. Life remained for them very much as it had been. They toiled for 
their living, they had pain, they died, in spite of the fact that Jesus had 
raised some from the dead. They saw that He had not delivered Himself 
from privation, nor suffering, nor any untoward circumstances, not even 
from death itself. And that not because He was unable to do so, but be- 
cause in His love and wisdom He had other purposes for His kingdom. 
So they, too, acquiesced in a life of privation and martyrdom like His, 
and did not lose hope. If He did not rescue them from the demonic 
forces of the world it was not from His lack of power, or love. The 
reason lay in His inscrutable will. All life for them was one. Jesus 
Christ was Lord of all. This fact they traced back to the earthly life of 
Jesus, whose illimitable power dispensed by His perfect love to all in 
need, first proved to them that He was supreme over the outer world of 
sense, and thereafter was guiding the humblest human soul without 
fail to a final destiny of good (cf. Acts 2:22; 10:38). 



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The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 14: The jesus of the Gospels — His Claim 



First Day: Jesus puts Himself Forward as an Integral 
Portion of His Message 



1. Whom then does Jesus Christ claim to be — so perfect in His hu- 
man character, so full of majesty, so unique in His teaching, so impres- 
sive with His power? He speaks with incomparable authority, never 
ranking Himself with the prophets. He comes forward as One beyond 
whom there is no appeal. He never weighs and balances, but decides 
with unerring insight. The people were not long in discovering a new 
authority in Him (Mark 1 :2i, 22). The scribes taught precedent upon 
precedent, always finding their authority in the Mosaic law, or its tradi- 
tional interpretation through the great rabbis. Jesus places over against 
"Ye have heard that it was said," a "but I say unto you" (Matt. 5: 
21, 22, 27, 28, 33, 34), assuming thereby that He can abrogate the Mosaic 
legislation by giving it His own fulfillment of its meaning. This no 
prophet could have done, for Moses had received the law by direct reve- 
lation from God. Hence in issuing new legislation for His kingdom 
Jesus makes an implicit claim to be above Moses. Jesus is not a 
prophet reviving the teaching of the past. The old in His words be- 
comes new. 

2. Further the authority of Jesus, as the gospels show Him, does not 
reside in the teaching itself, as though it were a word of God whoever 
spoke it. His gospel does not stand independently of Himself as did the 
message of the prophet, of whom it was said, "The word of the Lord 
came unto the prophet" (1 Sam. 3:7; Jer. 17:15; Hosea 1:2; Zech. 4: 
6). Jesus utters the word as His own. Further He Himself is part of 
His message. He demands faith in Himself as a source of power and 
life (Matt. 11:27-30; 18:6). He stands in the center of the hopes and 
fortunes of His disciples (Luke 12:8). In His name mighty deeds are 
to be done (Matt. 7:22; Luke 9:49; Mark 9:23) and works of mercy 
performed (Mark 9:39). Especially is this true in the fourth gospel. 
Jesus becomes food for His followers, His flesh and blood giving them 
spiritual sustenance (John 3:16; 4:10, 14; 6:35, 51, 53-57)- He is the 
Vine and His disciples like branches ingrafted into Him draw from Him 
their nutriment (John 15:1-5). Jesus Himself is the Saviour of men 
(Mark 2:17, omit "to repentance" as in R. V.; Luke 19:10; Mark 15: 
31; Luke 4:23; John ^'-A 2 )- 



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The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 14: The Jesus of the Gospels — His Claim 



Second Day: Jesus Forgives Sins 



1. Analogous to this is the authority with which Jesus forgives sins, 
assuming to exercise a prerogative which the Jews regarded with right 
as peculiarly divine (Mark 2:7). His enemies readily detected the dif- 
ference between such a general statement as "God forgives thy sins," 
which any one might utter as a fact, to be either disbelieved or accepted 
as a truism in many cases by those who listen, and the authoritative 
"Thy sins are forgiven thee," which in the mouth of Christ compelled 
belief and brought a most gracious sense of pardon. Multitudes of sick 
souls cannot bring themselves to believe that God will forgive their sins. 
They think they are in too grievous a case. But Jesus persuaded those 
who listened to Him that their sins were forgiven (Mark 2:5-12; Luke 
7:47-50; John 8:11). There was something in His presence that 
brought instant relief to their hearts. Men did not question that He had 
a right to do this, for a gracious peace-giving power proceeded from 
Him and caused a great calm to pass upon their troubled spirits. They 
did not question whether possibly they would still have to settle their 
accounts with God against whom their sins had really been committed. 
His pardon they were persuaded carried with it that of God also. 

2. To pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, to assuage remorse, 
was a diviner act than to heal disease, inasmuch as the cure of the soul 
demands a physician of subtler insight and more potent remedies. And 
it is only since Jesus has appeared on earth that this truth of forgive- 
ness has become an axiom of the Christian consciousness. As long as 
Israel had only its outward ritual the sense of pardon was never pro- 
found, for the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. Israel 
was left with a burden of transgression for which there was indeed a 
promise of removal, but nothing more actual than a symbolic atonement 
(Heb. 10:1-4). So the great promise of the new covenant to be 
initiated in the Messianic age was that sins would be forgiven (Jer. 31 : 
34; cf. Heb. 10:15-18). Jesus made the gift real. He brought it down 
to earth, and on His own initiative He did what no man had ever done 
before — He forgave sins, and made His disciples feel that He could 
cleanse their guilt away. 



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The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 
Study 14: The Jesus of the Gospels — His Claim 



Third Day: The Term "Son of Man," and Its Old 
Testament Antecedents 

1. The names applied to Jesus in the gospels are very significant of 
His character. In so far as He uses them they are claims which He 
puts forward. Of these far the most frequent is the term, "Son of 
Man," employed only by Jesus of Himself, never by His disciples. We 
are not concerned here with any discussion of what the title may have 
signified as it was originally used. Our purpose is simply to examine it 
in the gospels as they stand, so that we may get some idea of what it 
conveyed to the church from which our gospels sprang. 

2. Jesus uses it of Himself in every phase of His activity — His lowli- 
ness (Luke 9:58), His majesty (Mark 2:28), His service (Luke 19: 
10; Mark 10:45), His glorious future (Luke 21:27; Matt. 26:64). 
Majesty in humiliation, power through suffering, royal victory by ser- 
vice — this varied experience falls to the Son of Man. He must be a 
Person of extraordinary range of character. Who can this Son of Man 
be? was the question which the people put after He had taught them 
for some time (John 12:34). 

3. There are certain passages in the Old Testament which might sug- 
gest a great Figure to come, of whom some seers caught glimpses 
though they never saw Him face to face. Ps. 8 contains a remarkable 
prophecy of the coming glory of man as compared with his present 
frailty. Dan. 7 : 13, 14 also speaks of an eternal Kingdom of One like 
unto a Son of man to take the place of those founded on brute force. 
The prophecies of Isaiah also foretell a kingdom to be established in 
righteousness (60:1, 18-22), which is to be set up through the agency 
of the Servant of the Lord (53:61). This is the most magnificent con- 
ception of prophecy. 

4. It cannot be said that these passages as they stand in the Old 
Testament give a very coherent picture, nor need we be surprised that 
the Jewish ideas as to the person of their coming Deliverer were exceed- 
ingly vague. Looking back we can read the gist of them — man is to be 
delivered from his present humiliation into an eternal kingdom of right- 
eousness. The Lord of this kingdom is to be a divinely commissioned 
One like unto a Son of man with all glorious human dignity; preceding 
this final glory there is a process of much suffering on the part of the 
Servant of the Lord who redeems His brethren. But we read that unity 
into all these passages and ideas because Jesus Christ stands for us in 
the gospels. Look into His life — the life of the Son of Man on earth, 
and there come streaming up into its focussed light all those divergent 
rays from hidden depths of prophecy. 

l.rfC 

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The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 14: The Jesus of the Gospels — His Claim 



Fourth Day: The Method of Christ's Self-Revelation 
as Son of Man 



1. It seems then that Jesus used the term, "Son of Man," as a para- 
ble, suggestive of these foresights of the Messiah. To have spoken of 
Himself to the people as Messiah would have been to defeat His pur- 
pose, for they had one idea of that Figure, and He wished to teach them 
another. He wished to create in His own life a new conception of what 
Messiah should be, so He avoided the term itself as current but debased 
coin. But as He lived, wrought, blessed, forgave sins, called men unto 
Him, taught words of grace and truth, made the future of men de- 
pendent on their attitude to Himself (Mark 8:38), people began to ask, 
Who is this Person? Can Messiah be greater than He? Must He not 
be the Messiah? (John 7:31). Then when the time was ripe, and His 
followers had received an ineffaceable impression of the character of 
Jesus, He admitted that He was the One for whom they were looking, 
foretold in Scripture^the very Messiah. 

2. The first real acknowledgment of the Messiahship of Jesus made 
with any appreciation of its meaning, is that of Peter (Matt. 16:15) 
within the immediate circle of His followers. And Jesus regards it as 
nothing less than a revelation from God Himself — so different was He, 
the actual Messiah, from the figure of popular imagination. It was 
probably not until a year later that the people gave Him Messianic ac- 
claim on His entry into Jerusalem (Matt. 21:1-11). 

3. The method of Jesus is to send His disciples back to the Scriptures 
to discover there the true meaning of the divine promises so that they 
may learn surely if slowly that they are being fulfilled in a far deeper 
sense in His life than they at first imagined. At the outset of His career 
He tells the people that He is to do the work of the Servant of the 
Lord as outlined in Isa. 61:1, 2 (Luke 4:16-30). When John in his 
despondency sends from prison to ask Jesus whether He is really the 
Messiah, instead of answering directly He bids his diciples report to 
their master the works of Jesus so that he may see that the promise of 
the Servant is being fulfilled in Galilee (Luke 7:18-23). 



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The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 
Study 14: The Jesus of the Gospels — His Claim 



Fifth Day: The Death and Return in Glory of the 

Son of Man 



1. As the months rolled by and the disciples were persuaded that 
Jesus was the Christ, He revealed to them the fact that Messiah must 
die (Mark 8:31), and this was repeated again and again to most un- 
willing learners (Mark 9:31 ; 10:34, 45). Unintelligible as the word was 
it should not have been altogether new, for the note of sacrifice must 
have run like an undertone through His life. Even when He made the 
highest claims and was most prescient of coming glory, He was the 
Servant of the Lord. This profoundest conception of the Old Testa- 
ment should have been a counterpoise to their extravagant hopes, for a 
true Israelite should have known that Israel could never be redeemed 
without suffering (Luke 24:25-27, 45, 46). 

2. Another large element in the Old Testament hope of the Mes- 
sianic age was the new covenant (Jer. 31 :3iff.) whereby God would par- 
don the sins of the true Israel. So one of the last and most solemn acts 
of Messiah is to institute this new covenant in His own blood (Matt 26: 
27, 28), that thereby the many may receive pardon for their sins. This 
is a supreme symbolical act of the Servant of the Lord, but the real 
agony of pouring out His soul unto death does not come till Gethsemane 
and His trial (Matt. 26:38, 39; John 19:10, 11). The travail of soul 
was followed by its reward, when as He always foretold, and as the 
narrative records, He rises the glorious Son of God to enter into His 
eternal kingdom. This death according to the fourth gospel is a part 
of His exaltation to a larger life (John 10:16; 12:32). 

3. We cannot wonder that the disciples were amazed at the death of 
such a perfect Being as Jesus. At first it seemed as though He were 
deliberately courting death, and that this madness would bring His 
Kingdom to an end (Luke 13:22, 31-35; Mark 10:32). Only experience 
taught them the necessity that He should reach His glorious throne 
through suffering. For Jesus claimed that the Son of Man would re- 
turn in glory to be the Judge of all (Mark 8:38; Matt. 7 '.22, 23; 24:30, 
31; 26:64). His rising from the dead was not to be the final dealing 
of Jesus with the children of men. 

4. So Jesus used the term, Son of Man, as a parable. It covered His 
claims as Messiah. The Son of Man of His creation was the Messiah 
He wished to be. As Son of Man He is fulfiller of the past, and Head of 
the Kingdom of God. _ To Him all must come. He is the supreme Man, 
who has proved His right to be Lord of the kingdom of men because by 
His sacrifice He has won it (Mark 10:45). The many have been ran- 
somed thereby and have their sins pardoned. But the full glory of the 
Messiah will only be manifest when the Son of Man returns to judgment. 



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The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 14: The Jesus of the Gospels — His Claim 



Sixth Day: Jesus the Son of God 



1. Jesus also claimed to be the Son of God. The gospel is the gospel 
of the Son of God (Mark 1:1). He is initiated into His public career 
at His baptism by a voice from His Father (Matt. 3 : 17). Similar words 
are repeated at the transfiguration (Matt. 17:5), a scene which sets forth 
as far as it is possible to do so the inherent glory of Christ's Person. 
The blaze of light was the concomitant in nature of the moral and 
spiritual excellence that burst upon them for a moment. 

2. Jesus always addresses God as "my Father," never uniting with 
His disciples to call Him "our Father." Also His assent to the ques- 
tion of the high priest at His trial (Matt. 26:63) is regarded by the 
court as blasphemy. All these incidents are explicable on the far- 
reaching claim to Divine nature which He puts forth in Matt. 11:27-30. 
Two positions are involved here: (a) that nothing but divine inspira- 
tion can enable any one to understand who the Son really is (cf. Matt. 
16:17) ; (b) none can know the real nature of God the Father except 
through His Son, Jesus Christ. Therefore the Son alone can call the 
weary and heavy laden to Him for rest. Equally sovereign claims to the 
divine nature are uttered by Jesus in Matt. 18 : 20 ; 28 : 18-20. His life is 
a continuous power unimpaired by death and unlimited by time and 
space. 

3. In the fourth gospel the divine nature of Jesus is the theme of 
many of the discourses. As in Matt. 11:27, so in John 1:18 the Son is 
the only Revealer of the Father. He is one with the Father in knowl- 
edge, power and life (John 5 :20, 21, 26). Life radiating from the Father 
becomes in the Son a new nucleus of light as it were, a fountain of life 
for men. Being one with the Father in power He has at His control 
all the divine resources for the establishment of His Kingdom (John 10: 
28-30). He is also the object of the Father's love, and their fellowship 
on earth is but a continuation of an eternal loving intimacy (John 5 : 
20; 17:5, 24). He is the King of Truth whose eternal realm is above 
(John 18:36-38). The meaning of all this is that Jesus has come from 
another world, the home where He has always lived with His Father in 
closest love, in order to make known here on earth His Father's nature, 
and His will for us, His children. 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 14: The Jesus of the Gospels — His Claim 



Seventh Day : No Man Cometh Unto the Father but by 

Me 



1. The witness to the divine sonship of Jesus Christ is completed in 
the gospels by their narratives of the resurrection. It is not our purpose 
to discuss in this place their historical worth. Even at His earliest fore- 
telling of His coming death rays of glory flash forth around the disc of 
His eclipse, for He always prophesied His resurrection (Mark 8:31; 
9:31; 10:34), an< 3 in the fourth gospel the death is regarded as a step 
towards heavenly dignity (John 17:1). But it was not till the shadow 
of the world with its agony and death moved by that the full glory of 
Jesus as the Son of God was revealed to His followers by His appear- 
ances in His risen body. He was emancipated from the narrow earthly 
house to enter upon a wider life, and to go shepherding erring 
Gentiles in order that they might come with the Jews to form one 
flock (John 10:16-18). 

2. Thus the Jesus of the gospels makes the unhesitating claim that 
He and He alone can reveal God to the world. His human life is as it 
were the mirror in which we can read the full glory, truth and beauty of 
God, who is a Spirit (John 1 : 14-18). As the Son He is the living portrait 
of the Father, His life making the Divine Spirit concrete for men (John 
14:6-11). He is Son of God because also the Son of Man. Only the 
Head of the kingdom of men could reveal God to His brethren. Only in 
the perfect human nature could we have any adequate reflection of the 
divine. How is it possible for me to get a higher conception of God 
than from the .Son of Man, whose nature is so fully the creation of 
(Luke 1:35), and possessed by, the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:22) that He 
is at the same time the Son of God? Jesus asserts that He is different 
from other men, because He has an endowment of God's Spirit, and a 
perfection of manhood which puts Him at the head of the race. During 
His life Jesus claimed, according to the gospels, that He could lead 
men to the Father, and without doubt the Jesus of the gospels has 
done this for believers ever since. Do I wish to know what God is? 
I look to Jesus Christ. His life on earth, as it stands in the gospels, 
is a well from which the life of God Himself flows into my soul. In 
Christ I discover the mind of God, His love towards me, His purpose 
for me and His power to effect that purpose. 



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The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 15: The Jesus Christ of the Apostles 



First Day: The Resurrection of Jesus Christ; the 
Pauline Conception of the Living Christ 



1. The churches which received the letters of the New Testament 
were evangelized by missionaries who preached substantially the Jesus 
Christ of our gospels. From this conception there sprang up on every 
side, even in the hearts of pagans who had never seen Jesus, an enthu- 
siastic devotion to His person (Acts 16:31 ; 17 :2, 3, 6, 7; 1 Peter 1:8). 
Now what is involved in this universal devotion of the apostolic church 
to Jesus Christ? What are the essential elements in the conception? 

2. (1) That Jesus Christ is a living Person. He is not merely an 
entrancing memory, nor does He fill up their background as a beautiful 
ideal of the past. He is one whose power is felt in the midst of their 
present world, and with whom they hold intercourse. The apostolic 
church is based on the belief that Jesus was risen from the dead. The 
resurrection meant for them a renewal of the life which they had en- 
joyed with Jesus on earth before His death. He was absent from them 
in body, but His Spirit was in their midst. With glad assurance the 
disciples proclaim that their Master has triumphed over death and is 
now seated at the right hand of God (Acts 2 : 24 ; 3:15; 4 : 10 ; 5:31; 17 : 
18). Jesus is thus the Prince of Life. 

3. Paul's faith in the living Christ is obvious. He seems to lose his 
own self in that of Christ (Gal. 2:20). Paul does not move in the realm 
of ideas but within the influence of a living Person. Language fails him 
when he tries to express the intimacy of his fellowship with his Lord, 
his favorite term, "in Christ," denoting that every faculty is absorbed in 
the life of which Christ is the aim and controlling power (Rom. 8:1; 
1 Cor. 1:2). The old man perishes and the believer becomes a limb of 
the living Christ (Rom. 6:11; Col. 3:3). "To the Christ within Paul 
attributed all that he did and experienced as a Christian man. ... It was 
as if the very personality of Christ had entered into the apostle and used 
him as the organ of its expression" (Somerville). At a well remem- 
bered moment in his career Christ a living Person entered into his life 
and ever since he has had no mind or will of his own. In preaching his 
gospel he himself puts forward no claim on his own behalf. Christ 
leads him like a slave, while his message, bringing to all the knowledge 
of the grace of God is a fragrance of Christ Himself, life-giving to those 
who will accept it (2 Cor. 2:14, 15). (See Findlay's article, "St. Paul," 
ii., 3; c. in Hastings' Dictionary of Bible, Vol. III.) 



104 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 15: The Jesus Christ of the Apostles 



Second Day: Apostolic Belief in Christ as a Living 

Person 

1. All the other epistles agree in regarding Jesus Christ as a living 
Person. According to Hebrews He is the High Priest, who makes 
continual intercession for His brethren in the heavenly temple where 
He stands in the sight of God. This He does by reason of His endless 
life (Heb. 7 : 16, 24, 25 ; 9 124). He is now crowned with glory and honor, 
the first of His brethren to inherit the world to come (Heb. 2:8, 9). 
Thither He has taken with Him His human nature enriched by the life 
on earth, in which He sympathized with the sins and sufferings of men 
(Heb. 2:17, 18). No epistle surpasses that of Hebrews in its perfect 
blending of the earthly experience of Jesus with His present glory in 
active service to His brethren who are in this world (Heb. 10:20). 
Having suffered through His earthly experience He learned obedience 
and overcame His temptation (Heb. 4:14-16), and is now the personal 
living pledge that God will be true to the new covenant and forgive sins 
(Heb. 7:22; 12:23). Once on earth, now alive at the right hand of God 
He guarantees to His brethren the reality of the unseen world (Heb. 
6:19, 20). 

2. In 1 Peter 2:4, 5, Jesus Christ is referred to as the living corner- 
stone to whom believers come to form with Him a new temple of hu- 
manity, in which a true service will be offered to God by a universal 
priesthood of believers. He also engages the affection of those who had 
once been heathen and who had never seen Him (1 Peter 1:8). Yet in 
this epistle also the human life of Jesus on earth is made the example 
for the Christians who have to endure sufferings in His name (2:21; 
4: 13, 14), so that the object of their love is a living Person with a very 
real human experience on earth, which gives body and meaning to His 
present heavenly existence. Even in James, the Christian is exhorted 
to hold to the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory, i. e., 
One who by His resurrection is now enthroned in glory (James 2:1). 

3. The great error which the author of First John wishes to refute is 
the teaching of the Gnostics, that Jesus received the Holy Spirit at His 
baptism and that the Spirit of the Christ left Him before His passion. 
With the utmost earnestness he repudiates the doctrine that Jesus Christ 
the now living Person did not live and suffer in a true human life on 
earth (1 John 2:22; 4:2, 3 ; 5 :6). Finally, at the opening of the epistles 
to the seven churches there stands the figure of Him who guards the life 
of the brotherhood, one invested with all the dignity of a perfect human 
life exalted through death to a throne of eternal power (Rev. 1 : 17, 18). 



105 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 15: The Jesus Christ of the Apostles 



Third Day : Jesus Lives in the Hearts of His Followers 
Through the Holy Spirit 



1. That early Church did not think of Jesus as a prophet who was 
dead, such as Elijah or John the Baptist. In some sense it might be said 
that they lived on in the lives of their followers. But this was not the 
sense in which the Christians interpreted the living Christ. Jesus was 
not ranked even with the greatest of the prophets. All they were dead. 
There was no longer any new thought, or quickening personal power 
from them. That indefinable influence and essence which we call per- 
sonality is limited in human beings by death. Take away the living 
presence and the silent pitiless years soon do their work. Unless we 
refresh our affection with the kindling eye, and hear the ringing echo of 
one word more, and have the soliloquy of our meditation on our friend's 
goodness invaded by a throbbing ray of love from the living heart, soon 
his portrait in our memory loses its color, that gallery so full, alas, of 
ghostly forms, whose sight touches the fountain of tears as they call 
up "the old, unhappy, far-off things and days of long ago." 

2. But it was not so with Christ. He was alive (Acts 16:7). Just 
as I become a reproduction of the character of my stronger and nobler 
friend who lives by my side, those believers felt that their hearts were 
plastic to the living Spirit of Christ, which was shaping their souls into 
His likeness (Acts 5:9; 7:55, 59). In the classic exposition of the na- 
ture of the Spirit of Christ (John 16:8-13) we are told of a living per- 
sonal Spirit reproducing the life of Christ in His followers, standing 
by their side to help them in time of trouble, supplementing His teaching 
with truth which at the time when Jesus spoke was beyond their grasp ; 
in fact, a living fountain in which the mind of their Lord was made 
known to them. This Spirit was to bridge the chasm which in all other 
lives divides the earth from the unseen world, and enabled them to 
recognize in the exalted Christ Him whom they had known in Galilee 
as the Son of Man (John 20:21-23). 

3. In Paul's epistles also the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ (2 Cor. 3 : 
17), and by the personal influence of this Spirit the believer is trans- 
formed into the image of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18). But this is also the 
Spirit of God (Rom. 8:9-11, 14-17; 1 Cor. 3:16). In other places this 
Spirit is associated with Father and Son (2 Cor. 13 : 14 ; Eph. 4 : 4-6 ; 
1 Cor. 12:4-6). Again the Spirit seems to have a function of its own 
(Rom. 8:9, 26; 1 Cor. 12:11; Gal. 4:6). So it would appear that just 
as Jesus revealed the Father when on earth, by means of the Spirit which 
was the essence of His person, so the same Spirit of Christ is a present 
personal power revealing God to the believer. 



106 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 
Study 15: The Jesus Christ of the Apostles 



Fourth Day: Jesus Christ the Eternal Son of God 

1. (2) Jesus Christ was for the Apostolic Church the Son of God. 
Nor is this to be taken in a general sense of being especially devoted to 
God's will, nor as similar to God in character. All the resources of lan- 
guage are exhausted to express a thought which perhaps transcends 
definition. They believed that Jesus came from a home where He had 
lived an eternal existence with His Father (Phil. 2:6; 2 Cor. 8:9; 
Eph. 1:451 Peter 1 : 20 ; Heb. 1:2; 13:8; 1 John 4:9). He was also the 
agent of His Father in the creation of the world (Col. 1 : 16; Heb. 1:2; 
John 1 : 3, 4) . We must not forget that the world of which they thought 
was the world of men, a series of ages in which humanity was woven 
into one interrelated whole. The solidarity of the race constituted the 
world. The external world of matter only had importance in so far as 
it was the sphere in which men lived. The Christians believed that God 
was guiding all things towards a glorious consummation of His King- 
dom. Jesus Christ is His Vicegerent in the conduct of the Kingdom to 
its issue. Therefore He must have presided over it and been master of 
the world from the very beginning, for Jesus Christ has been the same 
Eternal Person from the commencement of time (John 1:4, 9). 

2. He also was in the history of Israel directing it by His Spirit 
(John 1:11; Heb. 3:6; 10:15; 1 Peter 1:11; Acts 7:51, 52). A pre- 
existent Person, He is the full Revealer of the nature of God. The Son 
reveals the Father. He is the image of God otherwise invisible to us 
(Col. 1:15; 2 Cor. 4:4-6), so that as we look upon the face of Jesus 
Christ we behold there the glory of the true God who is Light. The 
great passage, Phil. 2:6-11, brings out the same truth. Jesus indeed 
laid aside the exercise of His external divine prerogatives which He 
shared with His Father in the heavenly world, but His essential charac- 
ter was and remained even on earth the same as that of God. In Heb. 
1:3a similar conception is expressed under the figure of a ray of 
light. The light of the Father's nature becomes as it were a nucleus of 
light in Jesus Christ, whose personality wears the stamp of essential 
deity. The same thought is involved in 1 John 1:1; 4:12; 5 : 12. 

3. Such passages show that the leading epistles of the New Testa- 
ment attribute to Jesus^ Christ conceptions which in the Old Testa- 
ment were the prerogatives of Jehovah alone. According to the Old 
Testament God created the world and guides its history, and He sent 
His Word and Spirit to the prophets. These powers are all ascribed 
in the New Testament to Jesus Christ. In Him the fullness of the 
Godhead resides bodily (Col. 2:9). They worship Jesus and pray 
to Him (1 Cor. 1:2), they come to the Father through Him. The 
depths of the Father's grace and love are opened to the light in Jesus 
(2 Cor. 4:6; John 1:14, 16, 18). Only through Him has the Father 
held contact with the universe of men in the past, only through Him is 
He now in the world reconciling it to Himself (2 Cor. 5:19), and so 
through Him alone shall we forever approach the Father (Heb. 7: 
24-26). 

107 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 15: The Jesus Christ of the Apostles 



Fifth Day : Jesus Christ the Redeemer from Sin : Paul 
and Hebrews 



I- (3) Jesus Christ is also the Redeemer from sin. In the earlier 
days the attempt was made to fit His death into the teaching of the Old 
Testament (Acts 3:18, 19), and Paul tells us that it was one of the 
primary elements of the gospel (1 Cor. 15:3) that the death of Christ 
had procured forgiveness of sins. The death of Christ was the theme 
of his preaching to the Corinthians and Galatians (1 Cor. 1:23; Gal. 3: 
1). Instead of being a source of shame (Gal. 3:13) the death of Jesus 
Christ on the cross is to the Christian the power of God (1 Cor. 1 : 
18). It furnishes a motive of supreme efficacy. 

2. It is a sign of God the Father's transcendent love (Rom. 8:32; 
2 Cor. 5 : 20) , and also of that of Christ the Son (2 Cor. 5 : 14, 15 ; Gal. 2 : 
20). It is also the means of reconciling the love and justice of God so 
that He may be^rue to His own nature in forgiving sins (Rom. 3:26), 
for through His loving self-sacrifice Christ has removed the curse of the 
law (Gal. '3 : 13). If it were not for Jesus Christ's death the whole world 
would be burdened with a load of sin from which there would be no 
escape (Gal. 3:22). But all this is taken away (Col. 2:13, 14). This 
divine reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-21) is of such universal significance 
that it was from the beginning an integral part of the Father's purpose 
of love toward the world (Eph. 1:6, 7). Paul's writings are saturated 
with the thought of the redemptive efficacy of Christ's death. 

3. The theme is hardly less prominent in the Epistle to the Hebrews. 
The eternal Son of God is now seated in majesty after having made a 
sufficient offering to remove sin and give man access to God as a true 
worshiper (Heb. 1:4). He is the great High Priest who having made 
the sacrifice with His own blood is now ushering His brethren into the 
holy of holies. It is because He once for all offered Himself that no 
more sacrifices for sin are necessary (Heb. 9:26, 28; 10:10, 12). That 
offering gets its value because it was made in a spirit of absolute obe- 
dience to His Father's will. Thus Jesus Christ sacrificed Himself, an 
eternal Spirit without blemish, and thereby men can have their guilt re- 
moved and come boldly unto the throne of grace (Heb. 9:14; 10:9, 10, 
19-22). 



108 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 

Study 15: The Jesus Christ of the Apostles 



Sixth Day: The Gospel of the Cross 

1. Equally vital to the thought of Peter is the function of Jesus 
Christ as the suffering servant of Jehovah, who by His death removed 
the guilt and power of sin (2:21; 3:18), by His blood has consecrated 
the believers as the new Israel of God (1 Peter 1 \2) for He is the true 
sacrifice (3:18, 19). A similar conception occurs in Acts 20:28. The 
Lamb that was slain receives in Rev. 5:8-10 the homage of the new 
Israel purchased by His blood (cf. Rev. 1:5, 6), in which all sins have 
been washed away (7:14), and through which the adversary has been 
overcome (12:11). This sacrifice of the Lamb is no chance event, but 
is a part of the eternal purpose of God (Rev. 13:8). 

In opposition to men possessed by the spirit of antichrist who deny 
that there is sin, and consequently deny also that Christ suffered when 
Jesus died, the atoning death of Jesus is set forth in First John as essen- 
tial to the truth of God (1 John 5 :4-6), and as the only remedy for sin 
(1 John 1:7; 2:2; 4:10). 

2. Christianity is the religion of the cross. It is the religion of sacri- 
fice embodied in the service of the Son of Man, who through His death 
has swept away all sacrifices. Those early believers regarded the life of 
Christ, but especially His death, as an almost incredible proof of the love 
of God (John 3:16). Why should such an One as Jesus Christ have 
left His home to come down and engage in the awful wrestle with sin, 
and deliver sinful men from their bondage to fear of death, the curse of 
sin? (Heb. 2:14, 15.) The death of Christ was not a sacrifice to cir- 
cumstance. The purer the human Jesus was felt by them to be, the more 
exalted the throne to which the Christ had risen, the more acute be- 
came to them the question, Why did He die? It was not for His own 
sin. It was only for theirs, nay, for the sins of the whole world (1 John 
2:2). That the Holy Christ should die was to be explained only as the 
supremest act of vicarious love. His personal disciples never forgot the 
agony of His spotless soul as they saw it on the cross, or in Gethsemane, 
or even when He was subjected during His Galilean ministry to the con- 
tradiction of sinners. The death of Jesus meant that the love of Father 
and Son toward sinful men was so infinite that they would not leave 
men to their own ruin, but Christ Himself took upon Him the awful 
task of rendering null and void the claims of sin upon man (Heb. 9:26). 

3. Further, His death stood forth as the great fact in history which 
proves forever that God is a righteous God, of whose nature sin is the 
direct negation (Rom. 3:25, 26). When He pardons sin He is not in- 
different to it. Only by the utmost sacrifice He could make is it possi- 
ble for Him to remain true to His own nature and yet show favor to 
sinful men. The death of Christ is the proof that God is a Holy God 
who cannot disregard the moral order of His universe. He cannot com- 
pel the unwilling sinner, one who loves his sin, to accept pardon, for that 
would be immoral ; but in giving Christ to die He has furnished sinners 
with the most powerful motive for accepting the pardon of a self-con- 
sistent Holy Father. 

109 



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Study 15: The Jesus Christ of the Apostles 



Seventh Day : Jesus Christ the Judge of The World and 
consummator of the kingdom of god 



1. Jesus Christ was believed to be the Judge of all. This was a part 
of the earliest gospel (Mark 8:38), and the return of Jesus was 
preached by Peter during the opening days of the Church's life (Acts 
3:20, 21). In Acts 10:42 He is proclaimed as the Judge of quick and 
dead. This idea is expressed in the earliest letter of Paul (1 Thess. 4: 
16, 17) in language similar to that of the gospels, and in 2 Cor. 5 : 10 
there might almost be a reminiscence of Matt. 25:31-46. The final stage 
of the rule of Christ when He shall have completed the work given Him 
by His Father to do is described in 1 Cor. 15 :25, 28. Then shall the har- 
vest of the kingdom of which the risen Christ is the first-fruits be 
gathered in (1 Cor. 15:23). 

2. This thought of the return of Jesus to consummate His work 
runs through the other epistles (Heb. 9:27, 28; 10:37). It is contem- 
plated in First Peter with joy (1 Peter 1 '.13), though it will also bring 
judgment to many (4:5, 7, 17). Jude regards it as a disclosure of di- 
vine mercy (21), and Second Peter as the signal for the dissolution of the 
present system, the fulfillment of the prophetic day of the Lord (2 Peter 
3:10-13) ; and John as the manifestation of glory to which the children 
of God shall be conformed (1 John 3:2). The Book of Revelation is 
a paean in honor of the slain Lamb, who is victorious over all His ene- 
mies, who alone can open the book of the future (5:1-14), and ushers 
the Church of the Redeemed into the new Jerusalem. 

3. What a stupendous Person Jesus Christ was in the mind of the 
early Christians. He dominated not only their own life, but all exist- 
ence. This present was to them only a perishing world, at its best of 
small value. It shrank into insignificance before the glory of Christ and 
the realm of the new Zion into which He was about to lead them. But 
just because Christ has snatched the believer from the drift of the pres- 
ent evil age (Gal. 1:4), He has appointed him work to do in the short 
time that still remains. Something is left undone by Christ for His 
fellow-worker to complete, even to sharing in His sufferings, so that he 
may contribute to the establishing on earth of the eternal Kingdom of 
God (1 Cor. 3:10-15; Col. 1:24). 



no 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 1 6: The Manifold Gospel 



First Day: The Pauline Type 



i. The Person of Christ appealed in different ways to the writers of 
the New Testament. Men of most diverse temperaments acknowledged 
His mastery, having found in His many-sided character that aspect of 
perfection which completed their several natural endowments. "The 
mind" of Christ had a broad sympathy which fitted into each life and 
equipped it for its peculiar accomplishment So we have a variety of 
types in the New Testament. We must not fall into the mistake of read- 
ing all the books in the light of the Pauline epistles. Each writer saw 
Jesus Christ from his own angle of vision, and wrote out of the pro- 
found conviction that what he saw of Him would quicken and fortify 
others. It must not be forgotten that strong religious experience ac- 
counts for the New Testament 

2. But unquestionably the Pauline conception of the gospel has had 
immense influence on Western Christianity. Paul seems to have left a 
larger impression on early Christendom than any other individual, and 
he claims to have received his gospel direct from Christ without human 
mediation of any kind (Gal. i : i, n, 12, 16). One reason of his great 
power is to be found in his training. While perhaps surpassed in cul- 
ture by the author of Hebrews, he was superior to all in his liberality 
of spirit and breadth of view. No student can afford to neglect to pon- 
der carefully the gospel of one of the most brilliant students of his day. 
He had an absorbing interest in winning the empire of which he was 
a citizen to loyalty to Christ. And he understood the Jewish system as 
few others did (Gal. 1:14; Phil. 3:3-6). 

3. But his own genius and temper were a superb instrument for the 
use made of them by the Spirit of the risen Christ. He was essen- 
tially a seeker for righteousness (Phil. 3:6, 9). _ And his will was under 
the control of an intellect peculiarly sincere, rigorous and penetrating. 
While he was a Pharisee he lived a most consistent life as the product 
of that system, but he never upbraids himself with the sins of his class, 
their self-seeking and their hypocrisy. He was a strong, masterful man 
who had no useless ideas in his mind, but wrought his convictions into 
life. Since the law was a divine system there must be no trifling with it. 
The will of God is final. So Saul the Pharisee was a persecutor of no 
ordinary violence (Gal. 1:13). 



in 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 1 6: The Manifold Gospel 



Second Day : The Pauline Conception of Christ 



1. Saul discovered in the Christian communities revolution at work 
like a heady wine, and it was bursting the old bottles. So he who can 
do nothing by halves grows ruthless and continues so till the moment 
when the Son of God appears to him. Then he is shattered, and he re- 
quires some years of retirement to adjust himself to his new conditions. 
But in converting a man God does not remake his inborn disposition 
and type of thought and activity. He simply turns the old nature with 
its capacities towards new ideals. So Paul is like Saul in continuing to 
live for righteousness, and in putting into practice what he knows to be 
the will of God. 

2. Christ now takes the place of the law. He is Himself the will of 
God summing up all the divine nature (Rom. 10:4). Love to a person 
takes the place of obedience to the letter of a precept, and this shows 
itself in a life of love to others (Rom. 13:10; Gal. 5:14). Christ is the 
personal source of righteousness, becoming a fountain of divine grace 
to the persecutor who lives as a new creature in Christ Jesus. His re- 
ligion and theology lie in germ in this miracle of love. What an ir- 
reparable blunder was made by the representatives of the law when 
they put to death the Messiah of Israel. The vision of the risen Christ 
utterly discredited that whole system of righteousness, and now the 
great alternative is presented, either the law or grace (Gal. 2:21). Two 
facts, the cross and the resurrection, contain the sum of his gospel, for 
thereby a new order of grace has been established. Preaching out of his 
own experience he finds his theme in the risen Christ who has trans- 
muted the curse of the cross into an instrument of glory. With Him he 
also is dead to the old and alive to the new (Gal. 6:14, 15). 

3. The apostle to the Gentiles did not fail to expand his gospel as 
experience presented new problems to be solved by the trained intellect 
of the thinker, the religious ideals of the seer, or the dauntless hope of 
the statesman-missionary. Christ still is the sum of all things. As 
Paul's view of the world and the Church widens so does his conception 
of Christ become exalted. He is seen to Jbe the Crown of the universe, 
the Head of the Church, the full expression of the divine nature (Eph. 
1:10; Col. 1:18, 19). The network of congregations throughout the 
Roman Empire is the visible expression of the body of the Lord. By 
faith in and love to Him each believer is united to Jesus Christ the 
Head, and thus becomes a part of the body, living a new life of right- 
eousness through His Spirit. 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 
Study 1 6: The Manifold Gospel 



Third Day : The Epistle to the Hebrews 

i. There can be no doubt that the author of the epistle to the He- 
brews was much influenced by the circle of Pauline ideas, but no less 
certainly does he present a type of religious thought which is dis- 
tinctively his own. Paul regards the Mosaic law as a system of right- 
eousness. Hebrews treats it as ritual ordinance. If Paul is the states- 
man whose aim is to spread the Kingdom of Christ the living Source 
of true righteousness, the author of this epistle is a devotional spirit 
whose religion finds its fullest expression in worship. 

2. The aim of Hebrews is to prove that Christianity is the perfect 
religion because it gives complete access to the presence of the Holy 
God in fellowship with whom eternal life consists. But a great contrast 
runs through the epistle. There are two worlds, that where God dwells, 
the pure heavenly temple, the realm of the permanent and the perfect; 
and the present world of the seen, smitten with sin, a mere shadow cast 
from the realities of the world of light, shifting "sands marbled with 
moon and cloud" (Heb. 4:9; 10:1; 12:22, 27, 28). But the present is 
most attractive to many of the author's readers. Their faith in the worth 
of the unseen is not strong enough and the anchor of their hope is 
dragging (Heb. 3:12; 6:3-12, 18, 19). 

3. The argument proceeds from certain assumptions accepted by his 
readers — that Jesus lived a life of human sympathy on earth (Heb. 2:1, 
13-18), and was proved to be the Messiah (1:1-4; 3-i), and that after 
their baptism they had received gifts of the Holy Spirit (6:4, 5). Now 
what is involved in these facts? First, that Jesus who lived a life on 
earth touched with a feeling of our infirmities has bridged the two 
worlds by a new and living way as the Captain of the faithful (Heb. 2 : 
10; 10:20; 12:1, 2). 

Secondly, His sacrifice puts an end to all other sacrifices, because of 
the Person who offered it — the eternal Son — and the spirit in which it 
was offered — perfect obedience to His Father's will (Heb. 1:2, 3; 9:14; 
10:5-14). Finally, as the merciful and faithful High Priest (the great 
Intercessor) He brings His brethren within the range of God's pardon- 
ing influence and sanctifies them as true worshipers (10:10, 14, 22). 
Thus they become heirs of the unseen world (2:5-9), citizens of the true 
Zion (12:22). Meanwhile they live here in faith, which is itself a proof 
of the reality of the heavenly world (11 :i), and steady themselves on 
the promises of God and their hope (6:17-20). They have further as- 
surance in the life of Jesus on earth who is the personal Guarantee of 
the covenant (7:22), and in their foretaste of powers of the world to 
come (2:4; 6:4, 5). 



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Study 1 6: The Manifold Gospel 



Fourth Day : First Peter and James 

i. The First Epistle of Peter has affinities with the Pauline concep- 
tions and those of Hebrews, though the author does not move in the 
lofty regions of spiritual thought which those writers and the author 
of the fourth gospel enjoy to traverse. Peter may be called the prophet 
of the new Israel, a man with a frank nature, open to every generous 
impulse, and moved by the Spirit of God. His epistle has reminiscences 
of the human life of Christ, a memory of surpassing loveliness, whose 
moral beauty has traced on every one who saw Him an ineffaceable im- 
pression of holiness (i Peter 1:13-19; 2:21-25). Peter thinks of Jesus 
Christ primarily as the exalted Messiah, whose resurrection has made 
divine salvation and grace effective, and the Christian's hope secure (1: 
3-9)- Jesus introduces the believer to God, in whose presence he hence- 
forth abides (2:9, 10, 25). Peter speaks like an Old Testament prophet 
who has drunk deeply of the teaching of Jesus. God is the faithful 
Creator but also the Holy Father of the New Israel (1 : 17 ; 4 : 19). Holi- 
ness is as essential to the God of Peter as to the Jehovah of Isaiah 
(Isa. 6). Steeped in prophetic thought Peter teaches that the Church is 
the new Israel, which has been delivered out of the bondage of its 
Egypt by the sacrifice of its paschal Lamb (1 : 18,19). But the exalted 
Messiah was also the Servant of the Lord whose face was marred by 
awful blows, albeit with healing for those who follow Him (2:21-24) J 
and that perfect endurance becomes the example for every Christian un- 
der suffering. Thus the human life of Jesus meant more for Peter than 
it did for Paul, or even for the author of Hebrews. 

2. The epistle of James is the least distinctly evangelical of all the 
writings of the New Testament, the gospel having come to its author as 
the fulfilling of the old covenant very much in the sense of Matt. 5 : 17 — 
6 : 18. He seems to have passed from the old life in Judaism to the life 
in the new Israel without any violent rupture. The law of Christ is 
the perfect law of liberty, but it demands serious moral effort for its 
fulfillment (1:25; 2:8, 10, 12, 14). In opposition to the old practical 
Pharisaism which deemed outward service to code morality sufficient, 
provided there was assent to certain religious propositions, James like 
his Master demands living faith (2 : 14-26) which shows itself in works. 
"Pure religion," i e., "truest ritual service," is not religious formalism, 
but a service of practical love (1:27). This is the faith of the Lord 
Jesus Christ who is risen to glory, and who will soon return to right all 
wrongs (2:1 ; 5:7, 8). This life of true faith is begotten by the will of 
God through the preaching of the word of truth (1:18), and its es- 
sence is heavenly wisdom (3:13-18). 



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The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 

Study 1 6: The Manifold Gospel 



Fifth Day: Mark, Matthew and Luke 



i. Turning to the synoptic gospels we discover that in spite of a great 
deal of common material each presents one aspect of the life of Christ 
for different readers. Mark is the earliest of the three. It opens 
abruptly, and the close is lost, but there is no mistaking its purpose. 
Jesus the strong Son of God moves in mature manhood across the few 
months of His public earthly life, leaving an enduring impression of His 
power. Brief, vivid, picturesque, the story shows a Person in whom 
divine majesty is combined with human compassion commingled at times 
with scorn or indignation (3:1-5; 4:35-41). The effect is produced not 
by what we hear Jesus say, but by what we see Him do. This was the 
gospel preached to the ordinary man of the Roman world, to whom it 
offered a new King and a new kingdom. The strong, pitiful, dominant 
Son of Man, so human in His tenderness, so divine in His strength, 
wears in the gospel of Mark "the mien and countenance of authority." 

2. Matthew's readers are evidently Jewish Christians of the Western 
Dispersion who are in a difficult environment. They seem to be sub- 
jected to the taunts of Jews and possibly of Gentiles that Jesus is a 
discredited Messiah. So Matthew presents Jesus as the true Messiah of 
prophecy. He roams through the Old Testament, finding passage after 
passage which foretells the coming Kingdom of God and its Lord, and 
gets its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. He is the royal Messiah (Matt. 1 : 
20-25, 2:2) in His birth, His opening ministry, His legislation (Matt. 
5-7), His claim. Out of the remnant of old Israel He forms the new 
Israel, His Church (Matt. 16:18). This is a conception which along with 
that of the suffering Servant, also fulfilled by Jesus in His death, forms 
the distinctive contribution of Isaiah to the prophetic thought (Isa. 10: 
20-22; 11:1-9). Jesus is thus the true Messiah, and His followers the 
true Israel, heirs to the promises of Jehovah. 

3. Luke writes for Gentiles. A historian he traces in the gospel the 
origins of Jesus, His home, His growth, His manhood. As Jesus is 
made known His perfect human nature discloses all that it is possible 
for mortal man to conceive of God. He is the Son of God just because 
He is the Flower of humanity. "Heaven stoops to earth, earth rises to 
heaven." Jesus is the Saviour of the world, of the Gentile, the prodigal, 
the sinner. No gospel is so full of sympathy for the poor, the distressed, 
the broken in mind and body. In the Acts the same author sets forth 
Jesus continuing in His Spirit as the risen Lord to do among His 
disciples the work which He had begun on earth. The kingdom ex- 
tends over the civilized world under His guidance (Acts 1:8). 



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The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 

Study 1 6: The Manifold Gospel 



Sixth Day: The Johannine Conception of the Gospel 

i. The Johannine literature had its home in Asia Minor, where new- 
problems faced Christianity. Men were denying that Christ had come in 
the flesh, claiming that He was little more than an angelic spirit who had 
descended upon Jesus at the baptism and had left Him before the 
crucifixion. They ignored the necessity of redemption from sin, and in- 
terpreted the resurrection as a purely spiritual or intellectual experience. 
Some desired to live a free life of the Spirit in the enjoyment of their 
own ecstatic experiences, and did not see any need for going back to the 
historic Jesus. Others again echoed the common objection of Jew and 
Gentile, that Jesus could not have been the Messiah, or His own people 
would have recognized Him (i John 1:8-10; 4:1-3; John 16:13-15; 5: 
28, 29; 1 :ii-I3). 

2. A gospel was needed for such an environment. The gospel and 
epistles profess to be a record of personal experience (John 1 : 14; 1 John 
1:1). The disciple had discovered that Jesus was nothing less than the 
eternal Son of God the Father, and from Him he had got life (John 
20:31). That earthly life unfolded a nature one with the Father in life 
(5:26), thought (5:19), will (4:34), power (10:28-30), love (17:24). 
What others sought concerning the origin and maintenance of the world 
in the doctrine of the Logos or divine reason, this writer found in a 
Person. He solved for him all the riddles of life, for as the Word of 
God Incarnate He uttered God's will to the world, and accounted for its 
source and issue in God's eternal love (John 1:1-4, 14, 18; 1 John 1:1). 
In Jesus Christ we see the Father's nature. John thus starts with the 
historic Jesus. All the growing knowledge that comes through the 
Spirit of God will simply be an expansion of the divine mind that His 
disciples found in Him (John 16:13-15). He also as the propitiation 
for sin is proof to the world of the Father's love (John 1:29; 3:16: 
1 John 2:2; 4: 10; 5:6). 

3. The saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as Son of God which brings 
life is no mere intellectual assent, but is based on love. Christ is a foun- 
tain of divine love, welling up from the Father's own heart, and only 
he whose nature responds to this divine love of which His life on earth 
was the incarnation, can really believe on Him as the Son of God 
(1 John 4:9, 10. 14, 15, 16; 5:1, 4, 5, 10-12). 

4. Similar conceptions occur in the Apocalypse. Jesus Christ has 
conquered the satanic power of the world, the dying throes of which are 
still manifest in the awful struggle between the Church on the earth and 
its persecutors (19:20). Jesus by His resurrection has overcome death 
and Hades (20:14), He is the living One (1:18), the eternal Son of 
God (2:18), the Beginning of the creation of God (3:14), the Divine 
Word (19:13), the Lamb of God slain (29 times in Rev.) who has re- 
deemed the saints to an inheritance in the new Jerusalem, and the Judge 
of all (3:5, 12, 14-22). No more triumphant and beautiful conclusion 
for the gospel could be conceived than the last two chapters of Revela- 
tion, in which a glorious imagination leads us through the city of God, 
where mercy and truth are met together ; righteousness and peace have 
kissed each other. 

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The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 

Study 1 6: The Manifold Gospel 



Seventh Day : The Gospel and the Terms on Which It 

is Received 

i. Like a beam of light Jesus Christ irradiates the New Testament, 
but each writer's experience was a prism through which a pure color is 
refracted. All the epistles, different as they are, assume that the teach- 
ing they set forth is the mind of Christ. They profess merely to eluci- 
date what Jesus Christ was. The mind of Christ according to Paul con- 
sists in His self-abasement for our sakes, the infinitely rich one having 
become poor (Phil. 2:6-11) ; according to Hebrews it was His obedience 
to the will of His Father in offering His human nature as a sacrifice 
for sin (Heb. 10:5-14; 9:14); according to John it was His love as 
shown in His delight to do the will of His Father by la}-ing down His 
life for the world (John 10 : 17, 18) ; according to Peter it was also that 
the Christ suffered in the flesh on our behalf (1 Peter 4:1) ; and all 
these agree with the synoptic gospels, which portray Jesus Christ as the 
Servant of the Lord, the law of whose kingdom is that rank goes with 
service (Mark 8:34, 35; 10:45). 

2. What then is this gospel, this faith that overcometh the world? 
(1 John 5:4.) It is all summed up in that Person, Jesus Christ. He is 
not to be accounted for as other human beings are, for He does not be- 
long to this realm. He comes from another world, bringing with Him 
a true knowledge of our unseen Father and of His purposes with the 
world of men. His sojourn on earth in a true human nature revealed 
to us the perfection and sympathy of God. His death showed forth His 
love and holiness. His resurrection proved His power, and giving the 
world a glimpse of His essential majesty was also a promise of the 
future. The unseen is no longer to be feared, for it is the home where 
Christ is even now ; and through those realms a pierced human hand will 
ever lead us, for Jesus Christ will always reflect for us in His human 
face all the glory of God that it will be possible for human beings to 
contemplate. Jesus Christ an eternal living Person is thus the Word of 
God to the world of men. Through Him the Spirit of God comes to us 
reconciling us to God and making us His sons. 

3. The terms on which man receives this gospel are faith, love, trust, 
or obedience (see Study 6, 6th and 7th days). These are really the same, 
and denote the attitude of mind or will whereby we allow this great 
Person to lead us into the presence of God. The first disciples came to 
Jesus and abode with Him (John 1 : 35-49), they obeyed Him (Mark 10: 
28), they learned from Him how to pray (Luke 11 : 1), they trusted Him 
even when they could not understand (Mark 8:32, 33; 9:24: Luke 9:23; 
John 14:1, R. V. margin). So we to-day shall discover that Jesus will 
lift us out of our old life, bring us pardon, and introduce us as holy 
worshipers into the presence of God, if we pray to Him, seek to have 
His mind in us, and do His will which is love to God and man. 



117 



PART III. 



THE CREDIBILITY OF THE APOSTOLIC GOSPEL 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 
Study 17: The Trustworthiness of the Gospels 



First Day : The Jesus of History According to 
Naturalism 

1. We have seen the richness and power of the Christians' life, and 
their belief that nothing less than their gospel of the supernatural Christ 
was commensurate with their extraordinary experience. Their con- 
ceptions were very daring, for no figure more majestic could be con- 
ceived than their Lord who was the Way, the Truth and the Life, whose 
death on the cross had made the forgiveness of their sins possible, whose 
resurrection had demonstrated that He was the eternal Son of God, 
whose Spirit was in their midst, and who would return to be the Judge 
of the world. 

2. We may by way of contrast consider the explanation of the rise 
of the Christian gospel which naturalism supplies. We are told that "no 
process of criticism can restore the ipsissima verba of Jesus," and that 
only five or ten sayings and events of the gospels can be relied on as 
absolutely credible ("Encyclopaedia Biblica," articles "Son of Man" and 
"Gospels"). But when this class of critic unwraps the myths, legends 
and "church" conceptions in which Jesus has been embalmed by pious 
devotion, some such gaunt form as this appears, though "the actual his- 
torical picture of Jesus is inaccessible." 

3. Jesus had much sympathy with John the Baptist, but there is noth- 
ing historical in the gospel narratives of His baptism, and though the 
Temptation may have been an actual crisis in His own life, it has "more 
or less mythic embroidery" as it stands ("Encyclopaedia Biblica," article 
"Temptation of Jesus"). Jesus preached the Kingdom of God expect- 
ing at first that His ideal would soon be realized on earth, and by His 
wonderful words, His great powers, and His character He created a 
deep impression. But He never put Himself forward as a part of His 
message, and it is doubtful whether He used the term Son of Man of 
Himself at all, and especially in the earlier part of His career. In fact 
"He did not look upon Himself as the absolutely perfect Man" ("En- 
cyclopaedia Biblica," article "Son of Man," § 47). 

4. Disillusioned when after a few months of popularity the enthu- 
siasm of the people for Him began to wane, He changed His teaching as 
to the Kingdom of God, abandoned any hope of establishing it on earth, 
and saw that a martyr's death was inevitable. Then probably the role 
of Messiah was suggested to His mind, and He began to prophesy that 
He would return on clouds of glory and inaugurate a new reign of God 
from heaven. 

5. He was put to death and was buried, and His body underwent de- 
cay, while His disciples returned to their homes in Galilee. Soon, how- 
ever, stimulated by visions the origin of which it is difficult to explain, 
they came to believe that He was still alive, and would ere long reappear. 
In this faith they went forth to bid their fellow countrymen repent and 
prepare to receive the returning Messiah ("Encyclopaedia Biblica," arti- 
cle "Resurrection"). 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 17: The Trustworthiness of the Gospels 



Second Day: The Real Creators of Christianity Ac- 
cording to Naturalism 



1. But the Jesus of history just outlined was far too narrowly Jew- 
ish to become the Lord of the world. Whether He claimed to be the 
Messiah or not, the gospel preached by the first disciples was national- 
istic; they had no interest in the outside world, and in fact did not be- 
lieve that the present age had many years to run (Acts 3:13-26; 5: 
30-32). 

2. A change first came, they tell us, with the Apostle Paul, who did 
not know Jesus in the flesh, but through a vision was persuaded that 
He was the Messiah and Son of God, Saviour for Jew and Gentile 
(2 Cor. 12: 1-10; Gal. 1 : 15-17). The historic Jesus thus disappears from 
the gospel and instead of His ethical message of the kingdom, and the 
fervid preaching of His first disciples that the Messiah would soon re- 
turn to judgment, the Gentiles are taught Jesus Christ, crucified and 
risen (1 Cor. 15:1-4). But this gospel was just what was needed to ap- 
peal to the Western mind, especially when reinforced by the impressive 
personality of Paul. 

3. After Paul's death this interpretation of Christ spread rapidly, till 
at the close of the first century an unknown author, changing it slightly 
to suit the requirements of that age, gave it classic expression in the 
fourth gospel. "The bestowal upon Jesus of the title Son of God, which 
He did not claim, and probably could not have understood, marked a 
step forward. When He was lifted up from earth and made a God He 

drew all men unto Himself It may be questioned whether without 

this deification it would have become historically possible for Him to 
dispense His spiritual gifts through the ages" ("Encyclopaedia Biblica," 
"Son of God," § 25). "While we may call the fourth gospel unhis- 
torical, we must not forget that just through its constructive work did 
Christianity itself first become a factor in history" (Holtzmann). 

4. It is thus clear that according to naturalism Jesus is not the sole, 
nor perhaps even the most important factor in the Christianity of the 
New Testament. All that He did seems to have been to give a certain 
impulse towards a higher and purer conception of God and man. The 
Christian gospel which converted the world is the gospel of Jesus, Paul, 
and the unknown fourth evangelist. Is it not then one of the injustices 
of history that Jesus of Nazareth has been raised to such an exclusive 
pinnacle ? 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 17: The Trustworthiness of the Gospels 



Third Day : The Testimony of Paul as to the Primitive 

Gospel 



1. The New Testament like the rocks carries in itself sure traces of 
its age, parts being undoubtedly early. It will not permit the assumption 
of a "Christ of the Church" without sufficient spiritual antecedents. 
When we read the undisputed epistles of Paul we discover that the gos- 
pel which absorbed his interest had been in existence before he was 
converted. What is the meaning of the earnestness of Gal. 2:2-10 un- 
less the most influential section of Christendom felt that it owed nothing 
to the apostle to the Gentiles? That section carried with it the prestige 
of primitive faith. They were the authorities (Gal. 1 : 17; 2:6; cf. 1 Cor. 
1:12; 2 Cor. n:i6ff.). Yet Paul asserts vehemently that there is and 
can be only one gospel, and that the Jerusalem apostles agreed with 
him therein (Gal. 1:9; 2:7-9). 

2. And in writing to the Romans, a church with the founding and 
promotion of which he had nothing to do (Rom. 1 :8-i5), and which was 
at the time he wrote famous throughout Christendom, Paul sends them 
the most elaborate account of his gospel, not as something new, but as 
a gift in which they might rejoice (Rom. 1:15-17). Does not Rom. 6: 
17 involve that the gospel had taken a definite shape, different in no 
essentials from what they then believed before the church of Rome was 
founded ? Not improbably there has been a tendency to overestimate the 
influence of Paul upon the early Church, but this is not because he as- 
serts his preeminence. Nowhere does he appear except as loyal to the 
whole brotherhood, none insists more strongly than he upon the unity 
of the Body of Christ (Gal. 2:2; Eph. passim). But he also is em- 
phatic that the essentials of the one gospel came to him not from tradi- 
tion but from the risen Christ (Gal. 1:1). 

4. Here then we have solid ground from which to take a survey of 
early Christian beliefs. For this letter which contains his testimony, 
though possibly dating as late as 57, carries us back at least fifteen, per- 
haps twenty years (Gal. 1:18 — 2:1), the tendency of recent criticism 
being to place Paul's conversion shortly after the death of Jesus. Thus 
the essentials of Paul's gospel, which according to his own testimony 
not only remained unchanged but were accepted by the other apostles, 
were preached within a decade of Christ's death in various parts of the 
civilized world. 



123 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 

Study 17: The Trustworthiness of the Gospels 



Fourth Day: The Earliest Gospel 

1. Have we any traces elsewhere in the New Testament as to the 
substance of this pre-Pauline gospel? It is admitted by very radical 
critics that the discourses of Peter in Acts contain authentic accounts 
of primitive Christian beliefs ( "Encyclopaedia Biblica," article "Acts of 
the Apostles," § 14). (See especially Acts 2:22-36; 3:13-26; 4:10-12; 
5:29-32.) Jesus is the risen Lord, the Prince of Life, the Saviour, the 
Servant whose death has brought forgiveness, the Messiah who fulfills 
prophecy, and the Judge of quick and dead (Acts 10:36-43). This con- 
tains all the fundamental beliefs that are more fully developed in the 
epistles. 

2. A very great deal lies behind the use of the word "Lord" as ap- 
plied to Jesus (Acts 2:36), and is implied in the worship of Jesus (Acts 
7:59). The brethren glorify the Man Jesus though in the eyes of the 
Jew the deification of the creature is the height of blasphemy. But in 
the New Testament it is impossible to trace any gradual process from 
hero worship into deification and finally into the entirely transcendental 
Person of the epistles. The earliest Christian worship involves funda- 
mentally the same view of Christ that comes in later teaching. Further, 
in Acts and Paul and the other epistles this object of divine worship is 
the Jesus who once lived on earth (Acts 4:10; 10:37, 38; Phil. 2:5-11). 

3. These words of one who belongs to the radical wing of critics are 
important: "It was quite natural that prayers should be offered up to 
God by Jesus, with Jesus, in Jesus, and very little time can have elapsed 
before prayers were poured forth to Jesus Himself, if indeed this was 
not done from the beginning, inasmuch as He was ever present with His 
own, ready to hear and able to grant their requests. In truth one is at a 
loss to see how Christianity could have failed to be the worship of 
Christ, and it is nowise rash to hold that their worship in a certain 
sense preceded, sustained and inspired the work of Christian thought 
respecting the person of the Redeemer. The Christian's conversation 
was with his Lord in heaven; if he distinguished God from his Christ 
he none the less beheld God in his Christ, so close and indissoluble was 
the union of the two ; he prayed to God in praying to Christ, though the 
solemn supplications of the congregation were addressed to God through 
Christ. Jesus was, as it were, the face of God turned towards man. 
Christian piety went on placing the Saviour at the highest pinnacle of 
glory, seeking and finding God in Him, adoring Him in heaven and 
striving to imitate the example He had set it upon earth, and drawing 
its force from this twofold character of its object, the_ divine and the 
human" (Loisy, "L'Evangile et l'Eglise," 251, 252, 3d edition). Is not the 
most reasonable explanation of this given in Luke 24:45-49; John 20: 
26-29? On this subject the reader of German may consult T. Zahn's 
essay on "Die Anbetung Jesu im Zeitalter der Apostel" in his "Skizzen 
aus dem Leben der Alten Kirche." 



124 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study i J: The Trustworthiness of the Gospels 



Fifth Day: Results of Recent Criticism of the 
Synoptic Gospels 

i. On turning to the results of the sanest modern scholarship with 
respect to our gospels, it is not hard to see that they increase the diffi- 
culties of a naturalistic interpretation of the Person of Christ, but sup- 
port the apostolic view which has already been studied. These points 
seem to be agreed upon. 

2. (a) At the basis of our present synoptic gospels there lie two 
written apostolic sources — a Petrine tradition, which is represented most 
fully by the n Gospel of Mark, and a Matthsean collection of the dis- 
courses of Jesus, from which the gospels of Matthew and Luke take 
their words of the Lord. 

3. (b) The most authentic portions of the gospels according to 
criticism are the material common to the three gospels, and the say- 
ings common to Matthew and Luke. Now in these are included the 
greatest works and the highest claims of Jesus (Mark 1:9-11; 2:5, 20, 
28; 4:35-4i; 5:1-20, 21-43; 6:31-44; 8:27-31; 9:2-8; 12:35-37; Matt. 
11:27). These are only the most important passages of a great deal 
of common material, but they cover the stupendous facts of Christ's life. 

4. (c) Our present Gospel of Mark, if not the earliest of the three 
gospels, most certainly gives the closest reproduction of the living 
Petrine tradition, which was widespread in the Church, and which is 
embodied also in our gospels of Matthew and Luke. In its present 
shape our second gospel bears the stamp of a writer who was in thor- 
ough sympathy with the Christ of the Pauline epistles. It is the Gos- 
pel of Jesus the supernatural Person, the Son of God, whose life is a 
manifestation of divine power. His knowledge is more than human, 
demons worship Him, He forgives sins, foretells His violent death 
(2:20), and has divine homage paid Him (15:39). 

5. (d) There is a growing tendency to hold that each of the gospels 
as they now stand was written independently of the others. The author 
of Luke can hardly have been acquainted with our Gospel of Matthew, 
and it is improbable that either gospel owes anything to the Gospel of 
Mark in its present shape. Their similarities are due to common apos- 
tolic sources. So apart from these they are in their aims and emphasis 
three independent narratives of the life of Jesus Christ. 



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Study 17: The Trustworthiness of Our Gospels 



Sixth Day : The Character of Jesus is the Greatest 
Miracle in the Gospels 



1. What is the fundamental characteristic of the Person of Jesus 
Christ? He is One who combines excessive claims as to divine nature 
with surpassing self-sacrifice in a true human life. His love to the 
world of men is such as had never before been known, but the marvel 
of the sacrifice, according to gospels and epistles, arises from the sin- 
lessness and transcendent dignity of Him who thus gives Himself for 
men. It is because He is the Son of God that the death of the cross is 
the heart of the gospel (Phil. 2:5-11; John 10:17, 18; Heb. 1:1-3; 
1 Peter 1:19, 20). It is because of the character and majesty of the 
Son of Man that His service on earth is so priceless (Mark 10:45). All 
the details of the synoptic gospels are so handled by their authors as to 
throw into relief this quality of person in the historic Jesus. 

2. But this insuperable difficulty is also presented to naturalism — the 
character of the Jesus of our present gospels. Admittedly the figure 
in the gospels is the most perfect Person that has ever been delineated. 
Yet the picture is painted out of the most commonplace colors, and on 
the simplest possible background. It is a mere peasant life in the ob- 
scure province of Palestine. There was nothing in the people, their in- 
terests, or their political life to catch the imagination of the world ; but 
out of these surroundings there arises, without the slightest straining 
after effect, a Person who lives forever in the world's heart. The 
deepest truths of religion are expressed in the story of the simplest life. 
His death, the degrading execution of a criminal sentence, becomes in- 
vested for the world with far more than the sacredness of martyrdom, 
or pity for a miscarriage of justice. 

3. Finally there is not felt to be any moral incongruity on the part 
of Jesus in asserting divine prerogatives. He remains a marvel of hu- 
mility even when He calls all men to Himself. He does not appear ab- 
surd in stepping beyond the limits of mortal humanity. Instead of de- 
grading the conception of God when He claims to be divine, there is 
nowhere a purer monotheism nor a loftier view of the fatherhood of 
God than just in those parts of the gospels where the transcendent per- 
sonality of Jesus is most distinctly portrayed (John 4:10-26; 14:1-24). 
(On this subject see Fairbairn's "Philosophy of the Christian Religion," 
Book II., Part 1, Chs. 1-3.) 



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Study 17: The Trustworthiness of Our Gospels 



Seventh Day: The Results of Criticism Make the 
Naturalistic View of Jesus More Difficult 



1. Now this Person of Jesus would be sufficiently marvelous if there 
were only one gospel in which it was depicted, but when we consider 
the features of the present synoptic gospels and the results of the 
critical hypothesis now in most vogue, the difficulties of naturalism are 
vastly increased. 

2. If we accept the results already outlined, it is evident that the 
figure of Jesus Christ as He is in the synoptics already dominated the 
sources which their writers used, and these sources came from the 
Apostles Peter and Matthew. So we have in our present gospels the tes- 
timony of two of the best possible witnesses of the life of Jesus. 

3. But the influence of the person of Jesus Christ is not confined to 
the material which is common to the three synoptics, or even to two, and 
which accordingly is usually assigned to these apostolic sources. Many 
of the incidents peculiar to one gospel, which therefore cannot perhaps 
be assumed to belong to such widespread tradition, but may have been 
gathered from a source known only to one evangelist, are imbued as 
deeply with the Spirit of Jesus — that blending of divine majesty and 
self-sacrificing love in a perfectly human life — as any parts of the gos- 
pels (Matt. 11:28-30; 16:17-20; 25:31-46; Luke 7:36-50; 23:27-32, 34, 
39-43). 

4. But if the radical critic asserts that we are too credulous in hold- 
ing that there were two apostolic sources for our gospels, and that we 
must get down to "the sources of the sources," till finally there will re- 
main only nine passages which "might be called the foundation pillars 
for a truly scientific life of Jesus" ("Encyclopaedia Biblica," "Gospels," 
§ 139), his own position is becoming desperate; for he has to explain 
how the jejune and disappointed "Jesus of naturalism" grew into the 
three wonderful independent portraits of our gospels, with aims so dif- 
ferent and meant for readers so differently circumstanced. What spirit 
entered into the souls of these evangelists, or into their intermediate 
sources, which enabled them to change the ecstatic Prophet of Galilee 
into the divinely human perfect Ideal of the world's adoration ? 



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Study 1 8: The Trustworthiness of the Gospels 

(Continued) 



First Day : Naturalism is Really the Denial of the 
Apostolic View of the Person of Christ 



i. Further, the fourth gospel must heighten our wonder at the 
creative ingenuity of the early Christians. For the verdict of the 
Church is that the Johannine Christ is not discrepant from the synoptic 
Christ. He has appealed to the spiritual understanding of the body of 
believers as the same, though His Person is portrayed by a more inti- 
mate and discerning interpreter. No single evangelist can claim to be 
either the creator or sole delineator of that harmonious Figure, whose 
divine supremacy and power are incarnate in a life of perfect human 
love and beauty. 

2. It must in fact be admitted that every one of our gospels as they 
now stand was written by believers in Jesus Christ as the Divine 
Messiah. The task of disentangling the Jesus of history from these nar- 
ratives becomes hopeless, for each naturalistic critic finds simply as much 
in these gospels as his preconceived conception of Jesus will permit him 
to discover, and the tendency is, as we have seen, to reduce the his- 
torical elements to a minimum. 

3. But he is faced with this formidable difficulty. Long before any 
of our gospel sources were written down there was the gospel that 
Paul preached, and there was the gospel of the Jewish Christian 
church which was older than that of Paul, while behind that we have 
the primitive preaching of Peter outlined in Acts. And through all 
these we see not the Jesus of the naturalistic critics, but the super- 
natural Son of God, Saviour and Lord. 

4. Naturalism is in reality a denial of the point of view from which 
the earliest known gospel was preached. It is beside the mark to ap- 
peal to Paul in order to show how the gospel could become independent 
of the historic Jesus. This will come up more fully in a later study. 
Though Paul did think of Jesus as the risen Son of God, there was, as 
we have seen, in the background of his thought the real human life of 
Jesus on earth. What has to be explained is how a Person, whose in- 
most quality and character are the same as those of the Christ of the 
Pauline epistles, is given the splendidly perfect human life of the gos- 
pels. The actual gospels carrying their detailed environment of Jesus 
are far more wonderful than the Pauline epistles. One and the same 
Person pervades gospels and epistles. The gospels emphasize His 
earthly career, the epistles consider the risen and eternal Christ. 



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Study 1 8: The Trustworthiness of the Gospels 



Second Day: The Miraculous in the Gospels 

i. It is thus the simplest solution of the difficulties which emerge 
from a consideration of our gospels if we accept them as presenting a 
trustworthy portraiture of the Jesus of history. But does this mean 
that all the incidents in that life are to be accepted as historical also? 
There are some scholars, who cannot fairly be classed as naturalistic, 
who yet hold that parts of our gospels have been idealized under the in- 
fluence of later church conceptions or legend. They find traces of such 
influence in the heightening of the miraculous, the narratives of the 
birth and infancy of Jesus and the resurrection, while they also believe 
that Jesus was mistaken in His hope for a speedy return in glory. We 
shall consider these. 

2. We are told that Jesus refused to work "signs" (Mark 8:12). 
This agrees with the incident in His temptation (Matt. 4:5-7). This 
was certainly so, for both in the synoptists and in John He lays little 
value on the faith which is based on "signs" (John 2:23, 24). Jesus 
never works miracles for display. They are kept primarily for the 
circles where there is faith, and there they become a part of His gos- 
pel, not at all to compel those to believe who would not accept His 
words. It is impossible to separate the words from the works of Jesus 
and to call only the former historical. That is simply to destroy the 
Jesus of the gospels. 

3. Nor is there any historical justification for separating the mira- 
cles into two classes, in order to admit that Jesus drove out the de- 
mons and healed the diseased, but to deny that He raised the dead, 
stilled the storm, or fed the five thousand. The attempt is made to ex- 
plain the nature miracles as embellishments of events due to natural 
causes, or as the outcome of figurative speech, parable, or allegory. The 
gospels know nothing of this distinction. All miracles are equally the 
natural and masterful works of a supernatural Person (Mark 1:27; 2: 
12; 4:38; 5:23). It is the Person rather than the act who excites 
wonder. 

4. Further the greatest miracles occur in the oldest part of the gospel 
tradition, which the best scholarship to-day assigns to the Apostle 
Peter. Thus the conception of Christ as Lord over nature became em- 
bedded in the narrative of an eye-witness within twenty-five years of 
the death of Jesus. 

5. In addition to this the brethren themselves felt that they were en- 
dued with supernatural divine power. They had the Holy Spirit with 
them, the energy of God Himself. They believed that this Spirit was 
the source of their Lord's life on earth and of His miraculous endow- 
ment (Luke 1: 35; 3:22; 10:21). Miracles formed an essential element 
in their total impression of the lordship of Jesus, whom they invested 
with all the attributes of Jehovah. Did they not contribute to this in- 
vestment ? 



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Study 1 8: The Trustworthiness of the Gospels 

Third Day : The Narratives of the Infancy 

i. The birth of Jesus by the Holy Spirit from a virgin mother (Matt. 
1:18-20; Luke 1:34, 35) is incredible in these days to many who find 
in such a narrative not only a phenomenon without any precedent, but one 
which seems to them to rob Jesus of His human nature. Of late the 
criticism of the portions of the gospels in which this event is embedded 
has become very acute. But the negative criticism has been more suc- 
cessful as usual in the destructive process than in its constructive theo- 
ries to account for the origin of the records. 

2. These are the chief arguments against the virgin birth: (a) It 
is not referred to in Mark, the earliest gospel, in the gospel of John, nor 
in any of the epistles, (b) The narratives of Matthew and Luke are 
conflicting and full of legendary material, (c) If they are true "we 
have lost the Christ who can feel with us because He is one with us in 
physical structure and composition." 

3. To these objections answer may be made: (a) The subject matter 
is not such as would early become current in the gospel, for it would be 
known only to the family circle. The fourth evangelist omits it be- 
cause he writes from his own experience of the life of Jesus, (b) Mat- 
thew and Luke are independent of each other, and so are two witnesses 
to the story. In themselves the narratives which contain the event bear 
strong evidence of authenticity, for they preserve for us (especially 
Luke) a wonderfully beautiful and true picture of the finest piety of 
Israel, which had passed away long before they were written down 
(Luke 1:46-55, 67-79). In these verses the ancient prophetic ideal is 
enshrined which disappeared as it was fulfilled in the gospel. What 
finer as well as historically more probable picture of the home circle from 
which the Messiah was to come could be drawn? (c) The Christ of the 
gospels is more than our Example. He is Revealer of God and Re- 
deemer of men as well. 

3. If they are unhistorical, whence did the narratives come? Critics 
are hopelessly at variance. Some say from a Jewish source, others from 
a Gentile origin. (1) But they did not spring from a Jewish source, 
for (a) Is. 7:14 is not sufficient to account for the subsequent structure, 
especially as (b) the Hebrew regarded marriage as honorable and vir- 
ginity not a peculiar state of blessedness, and (c) the Messiah, in so 
far as He was a human figure, was to be a king of Davidic descent as 
well as Son of God. (2) They were not of Gentile origin, for the Chris- 
tian mind revolted from the polluting stories of the births of demi- 
gods and heroes, and Jesus was never regarded as less than fully divine. 
(3) It is not due to dogmatic motives, for it is never used to account for 
the sinlessness of Jesus, nor did He deny His natural descent (Mark 3: 

33-35). 

4. The meaning of the narratives is that Jesus is of supernatural 
origin. As he was unique in His life and resurrection so was He in His 
birth. He cannot be accounted for as other men are. He was a new 
creation, even as He was also the first fruits of those that slept (1 Cor. 
15:20-22; Rom. 5:12-21). (On this subject see W. M. Ramsay's "Was 
Christ Born at Bethlehem?" Sanday in article "Jesus Christ," Hastings's 
D. B. Lobstein's "Virgin Birth of Christ" is the best presentation of the 
negative view. F. H. Chase's "The Supernatural Element in Our Lord's 
Earthly Life" is valuable.) 

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Study 1 8: The Trustworthiness of the Gospels 



Fourth Day: Was Jesus Mistaken About the Future? 



1. It is often stated that Jesus shared the belief of His disciples that 
He would soon return on clouds of glory to establish His kingdom in 
power, but that in this He was, like them, mistaken. These passages 
are among others supposed to justify such an opinion (Mark 9:1; Matt. 
10 : 23 ; 24 : 32-36 ; 26 : 64 ; Luke 12 : 35-40, 46) . In addition to these words 
there was the widespread early belief of the Church that Jesus would be 
revealed before long in majesty. This we are told is to be explained 
only by Jesus having taught it. 

2. Such a view can only be met by somewhat lengthened treatment. 
What was Jesus' own idea of the nature and growth of its kingdom? 
(See Matt. 4:8-10; 10:17-22; 13:24-50; 24:9-14; Mark 4:26-29; 14:9; 
Luke 17:21.) From these we gather that His kingdom was to be the 
spiritual rule of God within the hearts of men, growing slowly and with 
much opposition, but brought even at the expense of persecution to the 
outside world, and containing elements of good and evil as it found con- 
crete expression in the earthly communities of His followers. 

3. Jesus taught that this kingdom was to be the new Israel, and with 
His own rejection as Messiah at the hands of the Jewish hierarchy and 
their persecution of His followers, would come divine judgment on Jeru- 
salem and the Jewish nation as such. The spiritual Israel, His Church, 
would take the place of the old Israel (Luke 12:54-59; 19:27, 28, 39-44; 
20:16-19). Much anxiety and heart searching would thereby be caused 
to His disciples, for they were Jews for whom the nation had till now 
been the theocracy; and the wrench of parting would be very severe. 
It is with this immediate trial in view that Jesus gives His warnings as 
to the future. His kingdom is not of this earth ; it is not political ; 
His followers must not allow it to become entangled in the national mis- 
fortunes of doomed Judaism. So they are to escape when they see Jeru- 
salem invested by armies (Mark 13:14-23). His kingdom will outlast 
the day of divine judgment on the nation that has rejected its Messiah 
(Mark 13:7-10). 



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Study 1 8: The Trustworthiness of the Gospels 



Fifth Day: Was Jesus Mistaken About the Future? 

(Continued.) 



1. The disciples could as little think of the present world without 
Jerusalem and the old nation of Jehovah's choice, as the world of the 
middle ages could have imagined it Romeless. What would be worth 
living for on earth after the destruction of Zion? That would be a chap- 
ter of God's government closed. Nothing more could be done with this 
world. It was the end of the old dispensation and the beginning of a 
new order with a new sphere for the final kingdom. The Day of the 
Lord would have come. 

2. But Jesus did not teach thus. He deals it is true with the fortunes 
that are awaiting His Jewish disciples in the national reverses so soon 
to come, but He tells them also that the gospel has an earthly mission 
beyond Judaism (Mark 14:9). Of its career in that period He says lit- 
tle or nothing, except that from the day of His death on He will be 
coming in power to judge the hostile world and to encourage His own 
(Mark 8:38; 9: 1 ; Matt. 28: 18-20). He also teaches that this world will 
have a catastrophic ending, for when the earth will have made final trial 
of the gospel and its judgment is complete, He Himself will with 
majesty inaugurate the kingdom in a new sphere (Mark 13:24-27, 31; 
Matt. 25:31; 26:64). But when that will be not even the Son of Man 
knows (Mark 13:32). 

3. Much of the imagery which Jesus employs is drawn from the Old 
Testament conception of the Day of the Lord (Mark 13:24-27; Isa. 13: 
9-13; 24:21-23; 34:4; Jer. 4:23^.; Dan. 7:9, 10; Joel 2:10, 11), and it 
is a wrong method to interpret all His language literally. As He used 
parables and symbol to convey truths which^ were beyond the compre- 
hension^of His followers at the stage of their spiritual development in 
Galilee or Judaea, so He did in regard to the future of the kingdom. 
He took the old prophetic terms which conveyed a permanent truth and 
made them the vehicle of His deeper fulfillment of it. Only experience 
could teach them all that was wrapped up in them, and to-day we are still 
learning more of their import than previous generations knew. This 
was His method in applying to Himself the title, "Son of Man." It 
was also His pedagogical principle in foretelling the consummation of 
His kingdom in the "Day of the Lord." Jesus then was not mistaken 
about the future. 



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Study 1 8: The Trustworthiness of the Gospels 



Sixth Day : Paul's Account of the Resurrection of 
Jesus Christ 

i. Many scholars, who are not inclined to deny that Jesus Christ is a 
living Person to-day in a different sense from the dead who are even 
now enjoying immortality, assert that there is so much legendary ma- 
terial woven into the gospel narratives of the resurrection of Jesus as to 
make the event itself there recorded incredible. Fortunately for us we 
are able to check and elucidate the gospel stories with a very direct and 
ample defence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ by Paul in i Cor. 15 : 
1-8, 20, 35-54- 

2. This chapter is written to counteract the Greek notion prevalent 
in Corinth that the resurrection was a spiritual event already past, when 
the believer rose from his old life in the world to his new life in the 
spirit. The apostle bases all his hope of his own future life on the resur- 
rection of Jesus (15:12-19). He does not entertain the Pharisaic view 
of a return from the dead to present earthly conditions, for frail, decay- 
ing flesh and blood cannot inherit that eternal kingdom (15:50). But 
it will be inherited by living persons who have their own former bodies, 
though flesh has given way to a new material which cannot be described, 
but will by reason of God's infinite power be suitable to the new spiritual 
sphere (15 : 35-49) • 

3. The proof of this belief is the fact that Jesus Christ Himself died 
and was buried and rose (therefore left the grave empty 15:3, 4). His 
risen body is the first of the great harvest of the resurrection (15:20). 
But Paul never describes its nature. He simply states that it is the 
most certain of facts that He returned, and was recognized by His 
friends as an objective reality, and that He held personal intercourse 
with himself (15:5-10). No better historical witness could be de- 
manded by these Corinthians. Whether he knew of the appearances to 
the women we cannot say, but their testimony would be of small weight 
with such a church. However, He was seen by the great apostle to 
whom one wing of this church looked up (1 Cor. 1:12), also by the 
original apostolic body, then by a multitude some of whom were still 
alive, then by the leader of Jewish Christianity, again by the apostles, 
and lastly, as though after all the other appearances were over, by the 
apostle to the Gentiles. What better testimony could that Church, or any 
church, want? 



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Study 1 8: The Trustworthiness of the Gospels 



Seventh Day: The Gospel Narratives of the Resur- 
rection 

i. On turning to the gospel narratives we are faced with serious dif- 
ferences and difficulties. How many angels were at the tomb? (Matt. 
28:2-4; Mark 16:5; Luke 24:4.) To whom did Jesus first appear? 
(Matt. 28:9; John 20:13-16; Luke 24:34.) Where did Jesus meet His 
disciples, in Galilee (Matt. 28:10) or in Jerusalem (Luke 24:36-43; 
John 20:19), or in both? (John 21:1.) A number of these difficulties 
do not defy reasonable explanation. But what is to be said of Luke 24 : 
39-43 when compared with 1 Cor. 15:50-53? 

2. We have already seen reasons why Paul's list of the appearances 
of the risen Christ may not have been exhaustive, and he also agrees with 
all the gospels that the grave was found empty on the resurrection 
morning. Whatever be the differences all agree upon that. Further, 
to whomsoever or wheresoever appearances came, the narratives agree 
that they were objective manifestations of Jesus, and that while His ap- 
pearance was wonderfully changed, His disciples recognized Him, and 
held real though intermittent fellowship with Him. This is also quite 
in line with the revelation which Paul received (1 Cor. 15:8). 

3. It must be admitted that there are in these narratives many de- 
tails which we cannot explain. And we can easily see why. The event 
was so extraordinary and the emotion so intense that the tradition was 
not clear. The story would be told in the language and thought of the 
women or first disciples, who in their bewilderment might be unable to 
recount exactly what happened. It is remarkable that the most self- 
consistent story is given in the fourth gospel by one who shows the 
deepest spiritual comprehension of the meaning of Christ's life. 

4. But with all their differences there is essential agreement, and the 
very confusion is witness to the truth of the tremendous fact with which 
the earthly career of Jesus culminated. What finer harmony could be 
found with Paul's thought than the beautiful stories of Luke 24:13-35; 
John 20 : 1-23 ? and what truer explanation of his doctrine in 2 Cor. 3 : 
17, 18 than the incidents of Luke 24:32; John 20:21-23? 

5. Finally the fact of the resurrection of Jesus is required to account 
for the early faith of the disciples, their life, the Apostle Paul, and the 
history of the Church ever since. It is not too much to say that whether 
you judge by adequate human testimony, or by the proof of history, no 
event has more sufficient external evidence for its objective reality than 
the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. 



134 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 19: The Christ of the Church 



First Day : The Epistles Demand the Christ of Our 

Gospels 



1. The figure of our gospels is also required to account for the epis- 
tles of the New Testament. In these books, unsurpassed for ethical 
power and religious insight, there is a passionate love to an invisible Lord, 
Jesus Christ. The words come not as moral commonplaces or ethical 
truisms, but aglow with a power that constrains attention. The writers 
placed extraordinary value on their message because of the magnitude of 
the Person with whom it was concerned. Now the naturalistic critic not 
only does not account for our gospels, but he leaves the epistles 
and their Christian life hanging in the air, and quite unintelligible 
historically. The Christian view is that the Christ whose life is accu- 
rately narrated in our gospels Himself is the reason for the apostolic 
interpretation of it in the epistles, i. e., His disciples did not misunder- 
stand either His Person or His ideals. 

2. It is admitted that the Jesus of naturalism could not have pro- 
duced the results which were effected by the Christians' love to Christ. 
"It was far easier for men outside of Jewry to look upon the bearer 
to them of such treasures of life [those promised in the gospels] as a 
god than as a mere man ; and even Hellenistic Jews must translate His 
personality into the supernatural to derive from it such spiritual gifts 
as their education had prepared them to receive" ("Encyclopaedia 
Biblica," "Son of God," § 25). In other words the Christ of the New 
Testament is a sufficient motive power to have given rise to the new 
Christian life, the "historic" Jesus was not. 

3. Whence then came this "Christ of the Church," the Jesus Christ 
of the epistles? From what elements was this conception reared round 
Jesus of Nazareth, as a huge structure is built about a narrow founda- 
tion, wing added to wing, story to story? This constitutes, as we have 
seen, the most acute problem of the modern defence of our religion, for 
what the scholar discovers to-day is proclaimed on the housetops to- 
morrow, and ruthless will be the work when reality strikes through the 
gossamer fabric of mere imagination. We need truth only to bear the 
burden of this world's ills. (Read Browning's "Christmas Eve," 
xiv. — xviii.) 



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The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 

Study 19: The Christ of the Church 



Second Day: Not a Creation of Old Testament Con- 
ceptions 

1. Since we are told by naturalism that we cannot now with cer- 
tainty get to know the historical Jesus, but only "the Christ-figure of the 
primitive Christian faith," the next step is to account for this creation it- 
self. For this purpose the Old Testament, contemporary Jewish thought, 
Greek, and even Buddhistic parallels are adduced as materials out of 
which the great Christian thinkers wrought up the Jesus of history into 
the Christ of the Church. 

2. It is true that the Jesus of the New Testament is inexplicable 
apart from the Old Testament. Indeed we have already seen that every 
vital conception of Jehovah is applied to Christ, and all the spiritual 
prophecies with respect to the theocracy are shown to be fulfilled in 
His kingdom. The Old Testament is a storehouse of unsurpassed 
wealth for the student of the New Testament. However different from 
ours may be the method employed by writers of the New Testament to 
prove in detail that the promises of the old covenant are fulfilled in the 
New, it is very evident that they have penetrated to the living stream of 
truth which underlies all the history and literature of the Old Testament, 
and they prove that in quality it is the same stream as has found its way 
to the surface in such overflowing purity in Jesus Christ. 

3. It is easy to unlock the secrets of the Old Testament when we 
have the historic Jesus Christ as tfre Key. But it would be impossible 
to start from the texts of the Old Testament and construct from them 
alone the Jesus Christ of the New. In fact Jesus Himself was the first 
one to open up the Scriptures to men. The voice of the prophets had 
been stilled. The scribes had so overloaded the letter of the books with 
traditional interpretations as to bury the truth beneath their rubbish. 
Jesus restores to the people a lost Bible, speaking with authority as He 
explains how the eternal truths of prophecy concerning the Servant of 
the Lord, the remnant of true Israel, the Kingdom of the Son of Man 
and the Day of the Lord came to completion in Himself. 

4. Naturalism assumes on the part of the inspired and prophetic 
personalities of the early Church the conviction that since Jesus was the 
Messiah He must surpass in grandeur those great figures of the Old 
Testament, Moses and Elijah. So they decked Him out in a miraculous 
equipment surpassing the powers of those men of God. But the old 
recurrent difficulty appears, (a) Whence arose the majestic, harmonious 
Person, the most splendid that has ever entered into the mind to con- 
ceive? How did the early Christians weave these disjointed prophecies 
of Ps. 2, Dan. 7, and Isaiah, together with suggestions from the life and 
work of Moses and Elijah, into that Son of God whom the Church loved, 
not as an ideal figure, but as a living Person, with most passionate 
devotion, (b) How came it that Jews, a people who at this time had 
magnified more than any other the distance between God and man, 
overcame their horror of blasphemy, and invested the Man Jesus with 
these sovereign attributes of Jehovah? 

136 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 19: The Christ of the Church 



Third Day : The Pauline Christ not a Creation of 
Jewish Thought 

1. It is not denied that the writers of the New Testament were in- 
fluenced by the thought of their time. They used the language of their 
contemporaries. Along with this went of necessity other conceptions, 
some of which were directly transmuted into vehicles for Christian 
thought, while others were almost entirely transfigured when they be- 
came adjusted to the new religious ideas. The Pharisaic system, for ex- 
ample, and the struggle for a free gospel to the Gentiles accounts largely 
for the form into which Paul threw some of his epistles. But the kernel 
of his gospel is not Pharisaic. So also in the Epistle to the Hebrews the 
Jewish ritual becomes the foil for the universal Christian truths as to 
sacrifice and worship. 

2. But to say that when Paul was once persuaded that Jesus was the 
Messiah, he drew from the theology in _ which he was educated the 
principal strands for the tapestry upon which Jesus Christ stands out as 
a glorious masterpiece of his own contriving, is to ignore not only his 
own testimony, but the real nature of current Jewish conceptions. 

3. The contemporary Jewish writings are a bewildering bundle of 
materials from which some parallel might be brought forward to sup- 
port almost any doctrine. Their Messianic figure was so indistinct in its 
outlines that it is difficult to determine what was really essential in it, 
while some of the Jewish apocalypses might give ground to the view 
that the Messiah was hardly a part of the hope of later Judaism (see 
Bousset, "Die Religion des Judenthums," p. 209). "Of a transcendental 
conception of His person, of a conception of Him as the bringer of a new 
revelation, or indeed of a redemptive, sin-removing activity, there is 
seldom a trace in the average Jewish writings" (218). "With perfect 
truth Dalman asserts that the thought of a preexistent Messiah was 
quite alien to Judaism, and that we must be very cautious in assuming 
that there were ideas of preexistence in this conception" (251). 

4. Even if the Jewish speculations were richer than they are, they 
could not account for the Christ of Paul, for He was no complex of 
ideas, but a living Person. Paul does not present his gospel as a learned 
teacher, but as an impassioned preacher redeemed by grace. His own 
life consists of two halves. Once he lived as a Jew; now he lives in 
Christ. Is the language of Rom. 5:8; 2 Cor. 5:13-19, theory, or con- 
viction rooted in overwhelming love ? Who ever loved a figure in fiction 
as Paul or any average Christian loved Jesus Christ? 



137 






The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 

Study 19: The Christ of the Church 



Fourth Day : The Johannine Christ is not the Product 
of Speculative Thought. 

1. It is equally hopeless to attempt a construction of the Christ of 
the fourth gospel out of Paulinism, Greek mysticism, and the Graeco- 
Jewish philosophy. Philo of Alexandria was probably well-known to 
some of the writers of the New Testament, notably the author of He- 
brews; but his doctrine of the Logos is quite different from what we 
read of the Divine Word in John 1 : 1-18. In Greek philosophy as repre- 
sented by Philo, the Logos is a purely intellectual conception arising 
from the Greek view of the contrast between matter and spirit. The 
Logos was the personified divine reason, the concrete thought of God, 
which seemed to serve as a bridge between God and the world. 

2. But the case is quite different with the fourth evangelist. Unlike 
that of the Greek schools his interest is not in the external world and the 
relations of finite and infinite. Moral not intellectual difficulties face him. 
"World" for him means "world of sinful men." What is his view of 
creation? (John 1:1-4; 5 ' 17, 19, 20; 17:5, 24.) Is its source in reason 
or in a loving will ? Philo could never have written John 1 : 14. More- 
over, the term Logos does not occur in the gospel after the first eighteen 
verses. The evangelist's problem is to set forth Christ as the Son of 
God who, having created this world of men, into which sin has entered, 
has by His life and death brought eternal life to those who will believe 
on Him (John 20:31). 

3. The fourth evangelist is a lover not a speculative thinker. He 
has discovered a Person who is for him the Way, the Truth, and the 
Life. Life is his favorite word, a life of love, and sacrifice, and power, 
found in abundance in Jesus Christ, who is depicted in a thoroughly 
human form and environment. In the profoundest parts of the gospel 
(*3 : 3i — 17) there is no trace of cold intellectualism, but these dis- 
courses palpitate with the warmest personal emotion. 

4. Even the most radical scholars ("Encyclopaedia Biblica," article 
"John, Son of Zebedee," § 62) admit that the conception of God is inter- 
preted in the fourth gospel with a depth unmatched elsewhere. God 
is the loving Father who has sent His Son to redeem the world from 
sin, the awfulness of which is most vividly realized by the sensitive soul 
of the evangelist. Is not the simplest solution that Jesus Himself was 
what John thought Him to be? that the One whom John, Paul, and every 
Christian writer adore was the source of these truths embodied in the 
"Christ of the Church" which meet the permanent needs of men? (See 
the remarkable book, "The Character and Authorship of the Fourth 
Gospel," by J. Drummond.) 



138 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 
Study 19: The Christ of the Church 



Fifth Day: Jesus Christ Revealed in the Christian 

Church 

1. The life of Jesus in Galilee did not exhaust the life of Christ. 
That was but one episode in His career. The Christ must be read in the 
life of His Church, for Jesus in His larger life has been creating his- 
tory since the days by the lake Gennesaret. We cannot understand Him 
apart from what He has been doing through the centuries. His Church 
is the most marvelous creation of history, its growth being as vigorous 
to-day as ever. 

2. It is not right to strip off all that life and thought in which the 
gospel from the beginning down to the present has found expression, and 
to place the essence of the gospel in one or two simple ethical maxims 
that Jesus preached. The Holy Spirit of God was promised by Jesus to 
His followers, and we believe that each age has had a larger apprecia- 
tion of the truth of the gospel than any that preceded it. The mean- 
ing of the life incarnate in Jesus is becoming plainer from century to 
century in the Church of God. "Particular and changing forms of the 
development of Christianity in so far as they are variable are not of its 
essence .... but it is the general traits of its figure, the elements of its 
life, and their characteristic properties that constitute its essence, and this 
essence is unchangeable like that of a living being, which is the same as 
long as it lives and in the measure of its life" (Loisy). 

3. But what is the Church? Does it consist in organization, or in a 
common spiritual life? The answer to this should be plain from studies 
2 and 3. In Eph. 3 : 18 there are these very significant words, "with all 
the saints." Full knowledge of the Christ will not be possible till the 
roll of the saints is complete and each one tells his story. These saints 
compose the Church. Its foundation is given in Matt. 16:16-18; 1 Cor. 
3:11. If Peter was the first Christian, the Church is the body of be- 
lievers whose life is hid with Christ in God (Eph. 4:3-16). Therefore 
it cuts right across religious denominations. Unfortunately a strange 
delusion often blinds men, but wherever there is faith in and love 
towards Christ there is true unity of spirit. The Son of man has mul- 
titudes of folds to-day, but only one flock (John 10:16 R. V.). God His 
Father is the great Shepherd and Bishop of the souls of men (1 Peter 2: 
25), and He chooses them from every denomination, many perhaps who 
belong to none. This loyalty to the living Son of Man which we call 
faith is the deepest motive in the Christian heart. It may be as in- 
tangible as gravitation, but it is an elemental power cementing the 
Kingdom of God whose foundations cannot be shaken. 



139 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 19: The Christ of the Church 



Sixth Day: The Mind of Christ is Reproduced in the 

Believer 

1. The Christian life and character are a powerful proof of the truth 
of the apostolic gospel because they issue from devotion to Jesus Christ 
as He is set forth in the New Testament. The Christian of to-day boasts 
in the language of Paul that he is the slave of Christ. What must Christ 
be if this profession of servitude to Himself which His disciples have 
acknowledged through our era has not degraded the devotees? Is any 
mortal man sufficiently perfect, so safe in his judgments and sympathies 
as to be chosen for the ideal of the race ? Why does a man who is wor- 
shiped or slavishly followed so soon become debased and degrade his 
admirers? 

2. But the slavery of Christ has resulted in the highest freedom (Gal. 
5:13), and in the truest and most heroic types of manhood. Frequently 
in history it is known that men of power have gathered round a hero 
with boundless admiration of him, but the next generation presents the 
world with successors who, being out of touch with the living personality, 
only copy slavishly the vices or the superficial virtues of their heroic 
type. They fall into a deadly worship of the letter. But it is not so 
with Christ. To-day He produces as heroic, original and virile manhood 
as He did in the first century. 

3. The worship of Jesus is not a literal copying of His earthly life. 
His surroundings and works in Galilee cannot be reproduced to-day. We 
live in a different world. Who would profess to work His miracles, or 
even to apply every saying of His literally to the present? That life of 
Galilee was not exhausted by its contemporary appreciation. The teach- 
ing and principles of Christ are simple but profound, and are to be 
fathomed only by the repeated searchings of every age, just as in tropical 
seas there are treasures which seem to lie within reach, but are brought 
to the surface only by great toil in the depths. 

4. The Christian character springs from "the mind of Jesus" (1 Cor. 
2:16; Phil. 2:5; Heb. 10:9, 10; 1 John 4:12-17). This is discovered 
chiefly in the gospels, and to-day to the great blessing of Christendom 
they are being studied more closely than ever. The dew seems to be 
always upon them as in the morning of a new day. These gospels make 
the mind of Christ concrete to us. His eternal, loving Spirit becomes 
more real and human to us, as we listen to His words and read His char- 
acter in His works and conduct. We follow in His steps by allowing 
His living Spirit to direct us in the way that Jesus would walk were 
He now incarnate again on earth (1 Peter 2:21). 



140 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 19: The Christ of the Church 



Seventh Day : The Quality of the Christian Mind 

1. The conception of God in the Christian ideal is the purest the 
world has known. Notwithstanding objections raised at times in the 
name of philosophy, and the age-long protest against deifying a man, 
there flourishes in the Christian Church, where Jesus Christ has always 
been worshiped as divine, the richest and most potent belief in God as 
the universal loving Father, whose majesty is unapproachable, and whose 
life is immanent in this world of which He is the Creator and Sovereign. 
Deism has been repudiated by the Christian mind. Those who worship 
Jesus Christ as the eternal Son of God, everywhere believe in God as 
the one and only wise God, the loving Father of Jew and Gentile, Bar- 
barian, Scythian, bond and free. 

2. The Christian mind is possessed by an exceeding great sense of 
sin. Unquestionably the life of Christ on earth, His awful death at the 
hands of godless men, and His resurrection have created in Christen- 
dom an intense conviction of the hideousness of sin. And this is a dis- 
covery that each individual Christian must make for himself. The 
vision of the Christ has filled the Christian mind with penitential sorrow, 
which no theories as to the origin and nature of evil have been able to 
dispel. Sin is felt to be more than ignorance. It has made a nest within 
the heart, which has poisoned the blood with its hatching. Whenever 
the Jesus of the gospels is preached the consciousness of guilt is deep- 
ened. 

3. Paradoxical, however, as it may appear, the perfection of Christ's 
character instead of repelling men by the thought of its being unattain- 
able has drawn the sinful towards Him. Moral approach to Christ is 
based on penitence. A return to the pure Christ of the gospels has 
always meant an increasing ethical impulse to the Church. It is just 
where Christ is reverenced as divine that His life constitutes the ideal. 
His incomparable ethical altitude becomes the source of unexampled 
moral effort. Those who realize most vividly the awfulness of the 
world's sin are least hopeless of it. So Jesus Christ has produced in the 
Christian mind profound penitence, but a new and hopeful energy pi 
loving effort to reclaim others. The Christian character is thus dis- 
tinguished by an inexhaustible dynamic of love, flowing from the primal 
act of love revealed in the self-sacrifice of the Son of God. 



141 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 

Study 20: The Witness of the Works of the 
Living Christ 

First Day : The Gospel is Still the Living Word of God 

1. There has been a constant reproduction of Christian character 
down to the present, as appears not only from the moral tone of the 
Western world, but in the spiritual heroes, who in almost unbroken 
line have succeeded not unworthily the great personalities of the apos- 
tolic age. Origen, Athanasius, Augustine, St. Francis, Anselm, Luther, 
Calvin, Knox, Wesley, Edwards, and the leaders of the modern mis- 
sionary enterprise are a proof of the unceasing creative power of the 
gospel. 

2. More pervasive, though less tangible, has been the influence of the 
gospel manifested by the fruitfulness of average lives in Christian graces, 
and by the choice characters hidden away in those quiet homes, which 
give the nations their strength, and from which their great men come. 
Justice, purity, kindliness, the basal virtues of Teutonic and Anglo-Saxon 
life, flourish in the godly households of our Western world. (See Lecky, 
"European Morals," II., 100.) 

3. Consider the ideals and heroes of these countries. The Teutonic 
race of to-day has been largely moulded by Luther's Bible, and Luther 
is, in spite of many other influences, the real father of the Protestant 
German people. Of England there is no truer ideal than Alfred the 
King, who loved to serve his people and give them the enlightenment of 
the gospel. Any nation is blessed which has such a figure in the back- 
ground of its history. English literature, excelled by none in the eleva- 
tion of its tone, is most truly national in those writers who are inspired 
by the principles of the gospel. Equally true is this of America, for the 
noblest and most distinctive portions of her literature are not only, like 
that of England, saturated with the Bible, but are creations of the 
sturdiest Puritan life, while her greatest heroes are sprung from re- 
ligious soil. The like holds true of the Huguenots of France, perhaps the 
noblest specimens of Western manhood. 

4. Further, the gospel has kept its hold upon the growing mind and 
thought of the world. "It has fed the conscience and refined the affec- 
tions" of men whose philosophic or scientific theories may have often 
seemed at first to conflict with it. But as truth has advanced the essence 
of the gospel has remained untouched, some dogmas of theology merely 
having suffered change. Men of the highest philosophic and scientific 
attainments remain as in the past humble believers in Christ. 

5. Now "a universal and continuous assent to any proposition is 
prima facie a strong presumption in favor of its truth The regu- 
lative ideas of reason are in fact the strongest forces in the world, and 
their power is nowhere more clearly traceable than in the spiritual his- 
tory of humanity. As regards conscience there can be no doubt that as 
man rises in the scale of being it becomes clearer and stronger, rules 
more effectively the whole mind and conduct, and gradually vanquishes 
the views of God, and of God's relations to mankind which grieve and 
offend it" (Flint's "Agnosticism"). But we find the gospel to be still 
the strongest moral force among the virile nations of the world, and 
Christian thought adapting itself securely without loss of its essence to 
changing intellectual conditions. Is not this a strong evidence that it is 
still the living word of God? 

142 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 

Study 20: The Witness of the Works of the 
Living Christ 



Second Day : The Birth of Philanthropy 

1. "The great characteristic of Christianity and the proof of its 
divinity is that it has been the main source of the moral development of 
Europe" (Lecky). "There can be little doubt that for nearly two hun- 
dred years after its establishment in Europe, the Christian community 
exhibited a moral purity which, if it has been equalled has never for any 
long period been surpassed (Lecky, "European Morals," II., 11). 

2. "There can be no question that neither in practice nor in theory, 
neither in the institutions that were founded nor in the place that was 
assigned to it in the scale of duties, did charity in antiquity occupy a 
position at all comparable to that which it has obtained by Christianity. 
.... Besides its general influence in stimulating the affections, it effected 
a complete revolution in this sphere, by regarding the poor as the special 
representatives of the Christian Founder, and thus making the love of 

Christ, rather than the love of man, the principle of charity A 

Roman lady, named Fabiola, in the fourth century, founded at Rome as 
an act of penance, the first public hospital, and the charity planted by 
that woman's hand overspread the world, and will alleviate to the end 
of time the darkest anguish of humanity" (Lecky, II., 78, 79, 80). 

3. Along with this has gone the mitigation of cruelty and an increase 
in the regard for human life. The lot of woman has been improved, and 
the sacredness of the family and of marriage greatly enhanced. Un- 
questionably this is to be traced to the influence of the gospel. Slavery 
also from being softened, as it was at once with the introduction of the 
gospel, came to be regarded as an outrage on the Christian conscience, 
and its overthrow in Great Britain, at least, may be traced almost directly 
to men whose motives were inspired by the strongest evangelical convic- 
tion (see Morley's "Gladstone," I., 202, note). 

4. These ameliorations of life were naturally confined at first to the 
home and the nation, but as time went on the principles of the gospel 
asserted themselves in the wider life of humanity. "International law 

is based on Christian principles Grotius's De Jure was an endeavor 

to present in orderly and codified form the customs and maxims which 
had grown out of the appreciation of Christian principles" (article 
"Christianity," "Encyclopaedia Brittanica," Ed. 10, 1903)- To-day the 
problems of human life are still numerous, but progress is visible iri the 
direction of the extension of the principle of arbitration both to inter- 
national and industrial activities. 

5. It is a patent fact that of all the forces which in the past have 
wrought towards these beneficent issues, and which are active in the 
present, none have been greater than the Christian Church. Indeed how 
many communities are there which do not depend for their most un- 
tiring workers in philanthroov to a great extent upon the devoted mem- 
bers of the Christian Church? (See Loring Brace's "Gesta Christi"). 

143 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 20: 



Third Day: The Gospel a Perennial Source of Reform 
Within the Church 



1. Objection is often taken to the argument for the proof of the gos- 
pel from its effects in Christendom by referring to the inglorious record 
of the Christian Church. Perhaps it would be difficult to find better ex- 
pression for it than in these words of the impartial historian, Lecky : 
"In the first two centuries of the Christian Church the moral elevation 
was extremely high, and was constantly appealed to as a proof of the 
divinity of the creed. In the century before the conversion of Con- 
stantine a marked depression was already manifest. The two centuries 
after Constantine are uniformly represented by the Fathers as a period 
of general and scandalous vice. The ecclesiastical civilization that fol- 
lowed, though not without its distinctive merits, assuredly supplies no 
justification of the common boast about the regeneration of society by 
the Church." 

2. This indictment is thoroughly moderate. But it is to be observed 
that no severer criticism has ever been passed upon organized Chris- 
tianity than by members of the Christian Church. Never have there 
been voices wanting to protest against un-Christian conduct within the 
Church. Appeal was and still is taken to the apostolic gospel as against 
secularized officialism, tyrannical systems, or lifeless creeds. The cry, 
"Back to the Gospel," or "Back to Christ," is a healthy sign and the 
proof of a living Church. To think of the reformation as having come 
like a bolt from the blue is unhistorical. It was the leaping into flame 
of a spirit of protest against distortion of the gospel, which had been 
smouldering for centuries throughout Western Christendom. And 
every revival of religion since, e. g., Puritanism or Methodism, has been 
a conscious return to some vital principle of the apostolic gospel which 
had fallen into abeyance. 

3. Jesus was never wearied warning His followers that His king- 
dom was not to be furthered by the selfish principles of worldly govern- 
ments. From the day of His temptation He kept this clearly before Him 
(Mark 10:42-45). Is it fair to charge His gospel with failure when 
selfish men using His name and His words but possessing little of His 
Spirit have, in His own despite, supported ecclesiastical or intellectual 
systems, which He would either have disowned or have regarded as in- 
adequate? (Matt. 7:22. 23). 



144 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 

Study 20: 



Fourth Day: The Real Though Necessarily Slow 
Progress of the Gospel 



1. A more modern objection to the power of the gospel is the sorry- 
spectacle of the slums of our cities, and our civic, national and interna- 
tional vices. The Mohammedan will point with scorn at our drunken- 
ness, the Oriental at the greed of Western peoples, and the thoughtful 
Buddhist at our materialism. Even the Anglo-Saxon critic, by no means 
always unsympathetic, is often staggered by the impotency of the gospel 
principles in our modern life. 

2. Several considerations modify this objection. The Christian ideal 
has made progress, and Christendom, wherever the gospel as it stands 
in the New Testament has been faithfully proclaimed, is far ahead of 
the rest of the world in the moral ideal it sets before itself. The West- 
ern world, for example, has a moral conscience. There is a spirit, often 
indeed elusive but most real, which compels moral obligation, reciprocal 
duties between man and man, human pity, and has made certain things 
impossible. 

3. Those possessed by the Spirit of the gospel are the most active in 
facing the deplorable conditions of modern life, and their work has 
proved to be not ineffective. On none does the weight of present ills 
rest more heavily than on those whose sense of their shame is keenest. 
This is a powerful motive for unflagging philanthropic effort. 

4. The progress of the gospel is bound to vary with the soil of the 
hearts on which the good seed falls. Jesus warned His disciples not to 
be too enthusiastic about returns. The moral and spiritual renewal of 
the individual must in most cases be a slow displacement of old and 
deeply ingrained habits by better conduct. 

5. Jesus also taught that the kingdom would be antagonized by a 
virulent spirit of evil. This is evident in the anarchistic elements which 
hate the gospel, for its success means their annihilation. Mammon also 
in an infinite variety of shapes among rich and poor works subtly upon 
the hearts of men. And our lapsed masses are part of the awful price 
we are paying for the mistakes of the Church in the past. Their spiritual 
faculties are atrophied, their religious natures paralyzed. But the only 
true weapon of the gospel is its work of love and its appeal to the spirit- 
ual within the heart. Where this has almost ceased to be responsive from 
whatever cause, it can be but slowly recovered, and the delicate spiritual 
sense requires time to subdue the coarse elements of Mammon and self. 
In some unfortunately there seems to be nothing but hatred of the good. 
Did not Jesus Himself lose hope of some? (Mark 3 :2Q.) 



145 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 



Study 20: 



Fifth Day : Foreign Missions a Proof of the Vitality of 

the Gospel 

1. There is no more encouraging proof of the vitality of the gospel 
than the strong enthusiasm with which missionary endeavor has been re- 
born during the past century. A faith that will make sacrifices is a living 
faith. Missions show that the gospel can still produce the heroic. The 
principles of the kingdom enunciated in Matt. 16 : 24, 25 ; 19 : 27-30 were 
not exhausted in the first century. Is this persistent heroism based on 
delusion? Are only the selfish ruled by reason? 

2. The success of missions may be estimated by the reproduction of 
the Christian type of character even in the most unlikely quarters. A 
sense of sin is created within converts from heathenism which expresses 
itself naturally in the words of Scripture, a conscience regulated by the 
authority of Jesus as a living Person, and a character approximating in 
its virtues to the Christian ideal. Threadbare often enough the garment 
of the new man may appear it is true, but far oftener it is surprisingly 
rich, and in its simplicity puts to shame the fashions of older communi- 
ties. Above all the old passionate love to Jesus the unseen Friend, their 
Redeemer and Lord, is repeated. 

3. Multitudes of these converts to-day are winning their lives by 
seeming to throw them away in the service of the kingdom or the en- 
durance of persecution (Luke 21:19). There is the daring devotion of 
the South Sea Islanders, who leave their homes and often are martyred 
by cannibals in their desire to prepare the way for the white missionary. 
There was the faithfulness of the Chinese converts during the late war, 
and there is the fact that among the blacks of South Africa "the natives 
who have been educated in various churches form an almost negligible 
element in the criminal class." We should not expect the rich harvest 
of autumn fruit, but the tender shoots of Christian character are mani- 
fest on nearly every mission field. 

4. The gospel also dispossesses the half-truths of other religions by 
its fuller light. This effect is to be marked not only by direct con- 
versions, but by the healthier moral atmosphere which it creates in 
heathen lands. For example in India, chiefly as a result of missionary 
effort, the pagan spirit has become more shy in professing its shameless 
mythology or worship. "Christianity's method is silent, slow, certain. 
It undermines rather than violently overthrows old systems. It deals 
with old false beliefs or old evils which oppress mankind rather by 
taking the spirit and life out of them, by substituting something higher, 
than by directly attacking them" (Stewart, "Dawn in Darkest Africa"). 



146 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 
Study 20: 



Sixth Day : Objections to the Proof of the Gospel from 

Missions 

1. But missions do not lack critics. It is asserted that Christianity 
wins its successes only in competition with religions of inferior grade. 
Against Mohammedanism, e. g., the gospel is said to make little head- 
way, nay, indeed, to be outdistanced by it in overtaking the races of 
Africa. In so far as this is so it is partly because "the good is the 
enemy of the best." Islam has given these pagan races something better 
than they knew. But this gift itself has made those races more im- 
pervious to the nobler ethical ideal of the gospel. Appealing to pride 
and force, with a simple conception of God, and a few moral demands 
so much less stringent than those of the Christian missionary, Islam 
sterilizes the native mind. But if it be gaining in Africa, it seems to be 
undergoing disintegregation in Persia, while in India Christianity is ad- 
vancing in a far greater ratio than the natural increase of the population. 

2. It is also often urged that many of the results, which the Christian 
assigns to the preaching of the gospel in heathen lands, are in reality 
to be ascribed to the progress of Western thought and civilization. We 
are not in a position to apportion the relative influence of education, 
civilization and the gospel, all of them doubtless potent factors in the 
upward trend of life. But it may be confidently affirmed that the Hindu 
educated only in secular Western beliefs is to-day proving to be a social 
menace to India, because he is "wandering between two worlds, one dead, 
the other powerless to be born." Further, in West Africa modern com- 
merce has really degraded the native races, and "all modern experience 
shows that civilization without Christianity has never civilized races 
that have fallen to the lowest levels" (Stewart, "Dawn in Darkest 
Africa"). 

3. It is historically unjust to compare the growth of modern missions 
and the character of the individual convert with the results of the first 
preaching of the apostolic age, to the detriment of the former. The 
conditions are not similar. From Persia to the Western ocean the finest 
moral elements of that world worshiped in the synagogues as Jews or 
as proselytes, and from these a steady stream poured into the Christian 
Church. There was a common language, common religious conceptions, 
and the world was ready to listen. To-day the missionary goes to peo- 
ples to whose language and ways he is an alien with a gospel expressed 
in terms of foreign thought. Further, where the people have an inkling 
of the new religion, they have been in many cases led to regard it with 
distrust because of the presence of nominal adherents whose conduct, 
whether in commerce or private morals, only degrades their faith. If 
Christianity professed by white or black is not held as a living faith, it is 
soon worsted by the awful practice of the unrestrained natural man in 
heathenism. 

147 



The Truth of the Apostolic Gospel 
Study 20: 



Seventh Day : The Gospel of the Missionary is the 
Gospel of the New Testament 



1. The uniform testimony of foreign missionaries is that the source 
of their power is the Jesus Christ of the New Testament. No class of 
Christians accept Him more eagerly as their Lord. None lay greater 
stress on His supernatural character, nor on the immense motive which 
the death of the Son of God supplies for their own life and the winning 
of converts. Occasionally indeed they express their belief in terms 
which are crude and realistic, but therewith goes a prodigious amount of 
conviction. The educated man with a critical philosophical faculty sees 
perhaps only the inadequate expression of this faith, and overlooks the 
immense dynamic which it commands. Whatever there may be of 
theories or outgrown creeds is carried on the surface of a glowing white- 
hot heart of love towards the living Person, Jesus Christ, who has re- 
deemed him. The lover has insight into the truth of the historic gospel 

2. Missionary societies and the various national institutions for the 
spread of the Bible go on the assumption that the figure of Jesus Christ 
stands forth clearly enough in the gospels and epistles to enchant the 
cultured Brahmin, the Chinese literati, the African villager, and the 
cannibals of the South Seas. They believe that one and the same Jesus 
Christ is found from the beginning to the end of the New Testament; 
and neither the promoters of these agencies nor their missionaries would 
have dreamt of sending any other gospel than that of Paul or John. 
"After many years' trial in different countries, and under every variety 
of circumstance the Moravian brethren have found that the simple tes- 
timony of the sufferings and death of Christ told by a missionary pos- 
sessed by an experimental sense of His love, has been the most effectual 
and certain means of converting the heathen" (Stewart). 

3. Christianity claims to be the absolute religion because it presents 
to the world the highest possible conception of God as the Holy Father, 
the noblest ideal and destiny for human nature, and the means of real- 
izing this through a living superhuman Person, Jesus Christ. By the 
dynamic of His life and the motive of His love He lifts the helpless 
world out of its sin into life eternal. Revelation is of the essence of the 
gospel. It is supernatural throughout in that its truth is not the result 
of man's unaided devising. Our danger to-day is lest a narrow view of 
nature should weaken our conviction in the supernatural, and that Chris- 
tianity should degenerate into a system of ethics. The sanctions of 
Christian morality have always reposed on the tremendous fact that_ in 
the historic gospel there is a revelation of the Son of God, who died 
and rose to save the world from sin. 



148 



AUG 18 1904 



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